Saturday, June 20, 2026

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Hegseth announces review of US forces in Europe as he lambasts NATO allies in Brussels meeting

By Malek Fouda

Published on 19/06/2026 - EURONEWS

Hegseth slammed Europe for prioritising what he called liberal ideals over practical defence needs as he lambasted the alliance’s defence chiefs in a rare appearance at the NATO HQ in Brussels.

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth lashed out at NATO allies on Thursday as he announced a six-month Pentagon review of his country’s forces in Europe whose outcome will depend on how fast the Europeans take responsibility for their own security.

The review was yet another surprise for European allies and Canada as they learn to deal with an increasingly unpredictable ally.

US officials and senior military officers had promised to coordinate closely with the Europeans as Washington draws down its troop presence around the continent, moves that first started in Germany, Spain and Italy after President Donald Trump clashed with their leaders.

In recent months, Trump and the Pentagon have sent conflicting signals about whether the US is reducing or increasing its military footprint in Europe, as well as threatening to annex Greenland, a semiautonomous island that is part of ally Denmark.

Just weeks ago, the Trump administration said that it would no longer provide as much military support should any NATO member come under attack.

“This will be a real review. It will be designed to ensure that NATO is moving fast and irreversibly toward Europe leading, stepping up to take primary responsibility for the defence of Europe,” Hegseth told his NATO counterparts as they met in Brussels.

“It’s a review that some countries will fail and others will pass with flying colours,” added the US defence chief.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz later said the allies have long been aware of Washington’s plans to pull troops from Europe at some point and that they must take care of their own security.

“We know that we must do more and we are doing it,” Merz said.

In a fiery speech at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Hegseth lambasted European allies for failing to provide US forces access to bases in Europe to launch attacks on Iran, calling it “shameful.”

“These allies, they put America’s sons and daughters, our sons and daughters, at risk by denying them the predictable access, basing and overflight that never should have been in question at all,” he said, adding that the review would also assess whether the US has full access and overflight “when we need it.”

While defence ministers and military officers sat in silence, Hegseth railed against migration and gender equality policies in Europe, in remarks reminiscent to those of Vice President JD Vance in February last year that angered many Europeans.

“Instead of tanks and fighters and air defences, the focus has been on gender equity and climate change and defence austerity. Europe’s borders flew wide open, welfare states expanded, defence budgets cratered, along with Europe’s belief in itself and its civilisation,” stressed Hegseth.

It was a rare visit to NATO by Hegseth, his first this year after skipping a meeting in February.

The Pentagon chief did not stay long, leaving well before the gathering was over and hours before Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was due to press allies for more weapons for his country.

Speaking to reporters at Brussels airport before flying home, Hegseth said, “It was great to hear country after country say, ‘We’re going to meet our target. We’re going to meet our target.’ There are still a few outliers, and we will be clear with them as we do this review.”

The fiery remarks may however create a climate of uncertainty among NATO allies who are due to meet in Turkey early next month in a scheduled leaders’ summit.

TODAY IS WORLD REFUGEE DAY

Foreign aid cuts and climate change pushing up migrant flows, IOM chief warns

By Gavin Blackburn

Published on 18/06/2026 - EURONEWS

Several rich Western countries, particularly the United States but also many European nations, have cut their development aid budgets in recent years.

Cuts in development aid by wealthy countries tend to drive up displacement away from the world's poorest regions, the head of the UN's International Organisation for Migration warned in an interview with the AFP news agency on the sidelines of the Berlin Climate Mobility Forum on Thursday.

"When we see cuts in development assistance, we're actually just making the likelihood that people will have to leave in search of safety, in search of stability, so much higher," Amy Pope said.

"We've seen it in places like Sudan, which is the world's largest displacement crisis as a result of the war there."

"With decreasing support for humanitarian assistance, we then see more Sudanese look for safety, look for opportunity further afield," she added.

Several rich Western countries, particularly the United States but also many European nations, have cut their development aid budgets in recent years, while also tightening migration policies and strengthening border controls.

"In order to respond to domestic political pressures" many countries are making "short-term decisions...that may not ultimately serve (them) in the long term," she said.

"The more we can connect assistance to the movement of people in ways that are humane and dignified, ways that give people agency and opportunity, the less likely we're going to see large patterns of movement."

Shortly after entering the White House for a second time, US President Donald Trump cut 83% of the programmes run by USAID. Before the cuts, the US development agency managed some 42% of global government humanitarian aid.

Germany has slashed its development budget under successive governments to just over €10 billion this year from nearly €14 billion in 2022.

Director General of the IOM Amy Pope speaks during a press conference in Geneva, 2 October, 2023 AP Photo

Climate change fuels migration

Climate change is having an "enormous impact on migration around the world," Pope said.

Small Pacific island states such as Tuvalu are threatened by rising sea levels, while some 10 million people are estimated to have been displaced because of storms in the Philippines, the IOM chief said.

Several regions of Africa have been affected by prolonged drought.

Pope called on policymakers in the wealthiest countries, which bear the greatest responsibility for climate change, to offer more help for people forced to leave their homes.

Migrants queue outside Barcelona City Hall, 29 April, 2026 AP Photo

"What are they willing to invest now to ensure more stability, more options, less likely occurrence of unplanned migration in the future?" she said.

"Let's not wait for the emergency...Let's make the investments now."

Contrary to the narratives being pushed by some political leaders about migration, most displacement happens within countries rather than across borders, Pope said.

By mid-2024 there were an estimated 304 million international migrants, according to the IOM, and more than 700 million internal migrants worldwide.

"In the first instance, people will stay in their country. They will go somewhere in their country if they can find resources or safety. Then they move in the neighbouring countries," Pope said.

Providing support within the countries most affected "actually is a lot less expensive...and will have a more stabilising effect," she added.

"Really, as policymakers, we should be looking at the issue in terms of where can we provide the most support in a way that saves the most lives."

On World Refugee Day, Support Refugees,

Don’t Deport Them

The US dropped the bombs that forced Southeast Asian families to flee and is now deporting them back to the very land that is still littered with American bombs.

Unexploded ordnance are cleared by humanitarian deminers in Phonsavan, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, August, 2003.
(Photo by Thierry Tronnel/Corbis via Getty Images)

Chris Phommasathit
Jun 20, 2026

Common Dreams

I was only an infant when my family slipped into a weathered wooden boat under the cover of darkness in 1978. Our journey across the mighty Mekong River was wrapped in an eerie, suffocating stillness as my parents, older brother, and I fled Laos. Whenever my mother recounts that night, she always ends with the same whispered awe: “It is a miracle you and Alex didn’t make a sound. I was terrified we wouldn’t make it.”

It would be decades before I fully grasped the terror of that treacherous crossing, the complex geopolitical forces at play, and the shared history between the US and my birth country that forced us out into the night.

‘Collective Failure of Humanity’: Nearly 118 Million Refugees Violently Displaced Worldwide

I think of that river escape every year on World Refugee Day. It is a day to honor the immense courage of those forced to flee everything they know. For me, it is also a day that demands a deeply honest look at how we treat people once they arrive on our shores.

Following the violence that consumed Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam in 1975, millions fled, culminating in the largest refugee resettlement in American history. We arrived first through sponsorship programs, and later through the Refugee Act of 1980, laying new roots across the US. Today, our Southeast Asian American community has grown to over 3 million, with vibrant enclaves from California to Minnesota, and my home here in Ohio.

Instead of tearing families apart here at home, the United States must commit to fully funding the removal of unexploded ordnance in Laos until the job is done.

My family is one of the lucky ones. After years of hardship, Columbus welcomed us and helped us plant our roots. Today, I am full of gratitude for my parents’ sacrifice, and we are proud to give back through family businesses we built and by serving on nonprofit boards like the annual Columbus Asian Festival and Legacies of War.

Not every story mirrors ours.

Many Southeast Asian refugees were resettled in severely under-resourced, over-policed neighborhoods without the support necessary to heal from the invisible, lingering wounds of war. Forced to navigate poverty and systemic barriers, some young refugees became entangled in the criminal justice system. Decades later—long after they have served their time, rehabilitated, and built families—they are being subjected to a cruel double punishment.

Since 1998, over 17,000 Southeast Asians have received deportation orders. Many have lived here for decades; the United States is their chosen home, and often the only home they have ever known. Once someone is deported, there is almost no way back, severing families permanently. These policies do not make America safer. They merely manufacture new trauma, uprooting lives all over again.

The tragic irony of these deportations is impossible to ignore. We are sending refugees back to a country still littered with the very weapons that drove their families into the dark to begin with.

Laos remains the most heavily bombed country per capita in history. From 1964 to 1973, in a covert effort to destroy traffic along the Ho Chi Minh Trail, the US dropped at least 2.5 million tons of ordnance across 580,000 bombing missions. That is the equivalent of a planeload of bombs falling every eight minutes, 24 hours a day, for nine years. Even today, unexploded ordnance continues to claim civilian lives, with children making up over 60% of those harmed.

True accountability requires a different path. It requires cleaning up the remnants of war that America left behind in Laos and honoring the humanity of those who survived it. For decades, US programs have addressed these lasting legacies. These efforts not only save lives and support vulnerable communities, but they also bolster years of diplomatic progress in a region of immense strategic importance. Foreign aid is not charity—it is a strategic investment for our country. US assistance in Southeast Asia consistently garners bipartisan support precisely because it yields clear, tangible benefits: enhanced safety, economic stability, and strengthened bilateral cooperation.

Instead of tearing families apart here at home, the United States must commit to fully funding the removal of unexploded ordnance in Laos until the job is done. I urge members of Congress to join the UXO and Demining Caucus and support legislation like the Southeast Asian Deportation Relief Act. We must end this cycle of displacement and keep our communities whole.

The United States was forged by those seeking a better life. This enduring legacy is embodied by the Statue of Liberty, our “Mother of Exiles,” who stands as a beacon of hope for people escaping persecution and war.

World Refugee Day was first celebrated 25 years ago. This year’s theme, “solidarity with refugees,” calls on us to recognize that true compassion does not end at the border. It means standing by refugees as they build their lives, acknowledging the full weight of our shared past, and ensuring that no one who seeks refuge from danger is ever forced back into harm’s way.

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.

Chris Phommasathit
Chris Phommasathit is a board member at Legacies of War and a refugee from Laos.

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France grants reparations to children uprooted from Réunion Island

Paris has approved a law granting reparations to more than 2,000 children from Réunion Island who were sent to mainland France between 1962 and 1984 – acknowledging the state's responsibility for a policy that separated families, uprooted minors and left lasting trauma.

Issued on: 17/06/2026 - RFI

One of 47 people born on Réunion Island and raised in France's Creuse region is welcomed back to the island on 7 April 2023. France has approved a law granting reparations to children transferred from Réunion Island to mainland France between 1962 and 1984. AFP - STEPHAN

The French parliament gave final approval to the bill on Tuesday after a unanimous vote in the Senate, following an earlier vote in the National Assembly.

The legislation creates a commission to preserve the memory of the scandal, establishes a national day of tribute on 18 February and gives victims and their descendants the right to apply for a lump-sum payment from a state fund.

Lawmakers said the measure recognises the state's responsibility in a scandal that affected 2,015 minors from Réunion Island, a French overseas territory in the Indian Ocean.

France's 'stolen children' return to Réunion Island

Childhoods uprooted

Between 1962 and 1984, children were moved from Réunion to 83 mainland French departments, mainly rural areas.

The policy was officially intended to respond to the island's population doubling in 30 years and to help repopulate rural regions. The department of Creuse received the largest number of children, giving rise to the nickname "Children of the Creuse".

Many of the children had been placed in state care before being transferred.

The policy meant childhoods cut short overnight, sudden changes to civil status records and, in some cases, mistreatment and humiliation that caused deep trauma.

"Thousands of lives were turned upside down by exile, by family separation, by the brutal break with a land, a language and a lineage," Overseas Territories Minister Naïma Moutchou said.

The law is "a measure of justice and dignity" that addresses the "darker parts" of French history, she added.

The legislation was introduced by Réunion lawmaker Karine Lebon and was adopted in the presence of survivors and associations representing them

Families left behind

The impact extended beyond the children themselves.

"Parents waited in vain for the return of their children and families were marked forever by silence, misunderstanding and sometimes shame," said Audrey Bélim, a senator from Réunion.

One of the children affected was Marie-Germaine Périgogne, now president of the Federation of Uprooted Children from France's Overseas Departments and Regions.

Adopted in 1969 after living with a foster family and separated from her brothers and sisters, she spent years believing her name was Valérie and that she had been born in Creuse.

Her true origins only came to light when she discovered an identity document at the age of 16. Recovering her original name required a lengthy administrative battle.

In 2017, Emmanuel Macron described the policy as a "mistake" that had "worsened the distress" of the children transferred from Réunion Island.

Lawmakers said some of those affected may still be unaware of their origins.

Voices from former French colonies reflect on painful slave trade legacy

Memory and repair

The new law gives victims and their descendants the right to apply for a lump-sum payment funded by the state.

The legislation follows laws passed in 2005 for people repatriated from North Africa and in 2022 for Harkis, which included similar recognition and compensation measures.

"A new memorial milestone on the long road to rebuilding for the children transferred from Réunion," senator Viviane Malet said.

(with newswires)

FRENCH HISTORY

France’s Popular Front at 90: a movement that became a myth

Ninety years ago, a broad left-wing coalition swept to power and kickstarted reforms that fundamentally changed working life in France. Its brief but radical tenure made it the stuff of legend for the French left.

SAME TIME AS THE SPAINISH CIVIL WAR

Issued on: 14/06/2026 - RFI

Women march in a Bastille Day rally in Paris on 14 July, 1936 celebrating labour reforms introduced by France's Popular Front government. © AFP

By: Jessica Phelan

Within weeks of taking office on 6 June, 1936, the Front Populaire – or Popular Front – had established collective bargaining, enshrined the right to strike, capped the working week and granted all employees paid leave.

But the movement that redefined workers’ rights in France didn’t start out on an economic platform. Instead, it was forged to fight authoritarianism.

By the 1930s, fascists were in power in Germany and Italy, and far-right groups were flexing their muscles in France too. In February 1934, they rallied near the parliament building in Paris, seeking to bring down the centre-left government. The rally ended in a riot, with a dozen people dead and hundreds injured.

This rising tide prompted communist chiefs to drop their objections to working with moderates. In the months that followed, the French Communist Party teamed up first with the social democratic French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO), then with the centrist Radical Party.

On 14 July, 1935, with France now under a conservative government headed by Pierre Laval, a future Vichy collaborator, the new alliance gathered a crowd of 500,000 in Paris. Channelling the spirit of the revolutionaries who had stormed the Bastille some 150 years earlier, they pledged to “defend the democratic freedoms won by the people of France, to provide bread for the workers, work for the young, and lasting peace for the whole world”.

When France held parliamentary elections the following spring, that became the Popular Front's slogan: “pain, paix, liberté” – bread, peace, freedom.

Economic experiments

By now backed by trade unions, civil society organisations and local anti-fascist groups, “it was a kind of huge coalition way above the political milieu”, says Nicolas Brisset, a historian of economic thought at the Université Côte d'Azur in Nice.

It had also expanded its original remit. The Great Depression was biting and while France’s leaders were focused on slashing public spending, elsewhere governments were taking the opposite approach.

In the United States, President Franklin D Roosevelt was investing massively in public works and job creation schemes, while establishing social security benefits and expanding workers’ right to unionise.

“It's clear that the Popular Front was also inspired by what were called at that time the ‘Roosevelt experiments’,” Brisset says. Drawing on his New Deal, as well as other examples, they promised welfare for the unemployed, infrastructure projects and other stimulus measures.

Voters were convinced. They elected the Popular Front alliance on 3 May, 1936, securing 386 seats in parliament out of 608. The SFIO was the largest party and its leader, Léon Blum, was in line to head a new Popular Front government.

Listen to this story on the Spotlight on France podcast:

The joy of strikes

The month between winning power and taking office saw the Popular Front rewrite its platform again.

The impetus came from the workers’ movement. Angered by seeing employees punished for joining May Day protests and emboldened by the Popular Front’s victory, unions launched strikes that would become some of the largest in France’s history.

Between May and early June, more than 2 million workers occupied thousands of factories across the country, bringing production to a halt and forcing shops to close.

The strikes were exceptional not just for their size, but their nature. Organic and almost celebratory, they were accompanied by picnics, music, dancing and card games on the picket lines. They came to be remembered as “the joyous strikes”.

Workers dance and play music at a French factory on 5 May, 1936, in the early days of 'the joyous strikes'. © AFP

By the time Blum was sworn in as France’s first socialist prime minister, his government was in a position to deliver its promises and more. “It was an extraordinary weapon for him to have all those people outside striking,” says Brisset. “It was a huge political pressure.”

With all sides agreed on the urgency of getting France back to work, the new government passed reforms at breakneck speed.

On 8 June, it got employers and unions to sign accords establishing the right to strike and unionise, as well as a blanket pay rise. By the end of the month, it had followed up with legislation guaranteeing collective bargaining, a 40-hour working week and two weeks of paid leave – measures even more ambitious than the Popular Front’s original programme.

It was the start of a summer that has since entered into myth in France’s collective memory: when street parades celebrated a new era for labour rights and workers took what were for many their first holidays.

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

Reforms halted

But as the days cooled, the Popular Front’s momentum stalled.

After a flurry of other progressive measures, spanning from fixing minimum prices for farmers to extending compulsory education, in February 1937 Blum announced social reforms were on hold.

Germany was rearming and Blum wanted to build up France’s defence industry in readiness. Meanwhile markets were betting against the franc, dragging down its value, and the wealthy were moving their capital to safe havens abroad.

Leon Blum, France's first socialist prime minister, answers journalists' questions in June 1936 in Paris. AFP - -

Under financial pressure, the government prioritised arms production. As workers saw reform sidelined and inflation swallowing their extra wages, the Popular Front lost support from its base and divisions within the alliance widened.

In June 1937, Blum sought special powers to push through emergency financial measures. Parliament denied them and, after barely a year in office, he and his government resigned.

They were replaced by the Radicals, who pulled successive governments further to the centre. When they opted to ally with right-wing parties instead of Blum’s socialists in April 1938, the Popular Front was effectively dead.

Reviled and revered

During the war that followed, the Vichy regime sought to blame the Popular Front for France’s invasion by Nazi Germany, putting Blum – the first Jew to lead France – on trial.

For decades the narrative persisted that the alliance’s reforms had weakened the French economy and contributed to its defeat, says Brisset.

When France reduced the working week to 35 hours in 2000, he notes, opponents invoked the reforms of 1936 as a warning – “like, ‘remember the Popular Front? Remember what happened last time we reduced working hours?’”

Historians have since reassessed its legacy, pointing out that Blum reversed years of under-investment in French armament. Most tellingly, France has kept or expanded the Popular Front’s flagship measures.

“The Popular Front set the foundations of the social state,” says Brisset. “Of course the Popular Front failed, because it fell really quickly. But all the measures it implemented came back again after the war... And some others have been added, like the social security system, large-scale nationalisation etc. And I think without the Popular Front, this second wave of the construction of the social state would not have happened.”

Government backtracks on plans allowing more work on 1st May holiday in France

A protester holds a placard reading: 'Let's bring the Popular Front back again' at a May Day demonstration in Paris on 1 May, 2016. © AFP - ALAIN JOCARD

For the French left, the alliance’s year in power remains a foundational moment and a symbol of bold, progressive government. In France’s most recent legislative elections in 2024, left-wing parties came together as the “New Popular Front”, a broad coalition that became the biggest bloc in parliament – but proved too broad to hold.

Brisset speculates that parallels between the crises of the 1930s and today – notably the rise of the far right – partly explain why the left continues to invoke the Popular Front.

But he also believes its legendary status is, to some extent, deserved.

“I think it proved that something we thought was impossible was in fact maybe possible,” he says.

“It changed what we think the role of the state is, in terms of economic intervention, in terms of social intervention, in terms of social security intervention... And I think it's priceless. I really think it's priceless.”

The project nurturing West Africa's new generation of women filmmakers

Some of the West African film industry's biggest names are backing a new mentorship programme to support emerging women filmmakers. Showcased at this year's Cannes Film Festival, the Mariama Lab project aims to help women bring their stories to a wider audience in the region and beyond.

Issued on: 14/06/2026 - RFI

Cover image: Senegalese filmmaker Angèle Diabang behind the camera on a shoot. She is a mentor in the Mariama Lab programme to support West African women filmmakers.

© Karoninka
02:37

By: Ollia Horton

Born in Côte d’Ivoire, Azata Soro made her name as an actress in Burkina Faso and has since become a director and producer. She learned on the job, but always dreamed of going to film school for professional training.

"I talk all the time about imposter syndrome, and it lasted for so long. I still carry it with me. My advice to young women today would be: 'Free yourself from it and shine,'" Soro tells RFI.

Today, she is helping other young women as one of the coordinators for Mariama Lab, a year-long mentoring programme to support emerging women filmmakers from West Africa.

Co-created by the Collectif 50/50, a French NGO for gender equality, and the Mariama Institut, a film writing residency in Mauritania, it is designed to boost women working on their first or second features.

The five women chosen to participate in the first edition, which runs until December, hail from Gambia, Senegal, Guinea Conakry and Mauritania.

Escaping the male gaze

For Soro, cinema represents first and foremost a way for women to take control of their stories.

"The first film I remember seeing on television was about excision [female genital mutilation] – I didn’t know what it was at the time, but I remember my father getting very angry about it. Our grandmother wanted that for us and he didn’t," she recalls.

"Creating an African women’s cinema means telling our stories through our eyes without the male gaze focused on our bodies."

Actress and film director Azata Soro is a coordinator for the Mariama Lab project to support emerging West African women filmmakers. She is pictured speaking to RFI at the Cannes Film Festival, 19 May 2026. © RFI / Ollia Horton

As an actress, Soro suffered a violent attack on a set that left her physically and emotionally scarred.

"For a long time I was stuck at home, I didn't dare speak up, I didn't dare share my story. There was this fear," she says.

Soro later realised that cinema could become a powerful platform to expose stories like hers. Together with other women in film, in 2019 she helped launch the African #MeToo movement, #MemePasPeur (Not Afraid). "It’s thanks to cinema that I have been able to speak out about the violence I suffered in the industry," she says.

Helping women too afraid come forward and opening the way for them to make a career in film became her new drive.

‘Forgiveness has to be lived out’: Rwanda's Cannes winner Dusabejambo

Breaking barriers, building bridges

Now settled in France, Soro has found support from groups like Collectif 50/50, which are raising awareness about issues such as sexual violence, discrimination and gender equality in the cinema industry at large.

Through the Mariama Institute, she also hopes to set up training programmes for intimacy coordinators for African film sets, something less standard on the continent than in some Western countries.

Soro is one of several well-known names in the African film industry involved with the Mariama Lab project. Others include screenwriter Kessen Tall, who worked on the award-winning 2014 film Timbuktu with Mauritanian director Abderrahmane Sissako.

Senegalese director and producer Angèle Diabang, who was part of the Un Certain Regard Jury this year in Cannes, will provide advice to Mariama Lab participants, as will France-based actress and director Aïssa Maïga, who has Senegalese and Malian roots.

Aïssa Maïga speaking to RFI at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival. © Romain Ferré / RFI

Run with the support of the French embassy in Guinea Conakry and the Institut Français cultural network, the programme has four main stages: one-on-one online mentoring, face-to-face masterclasses with industry professionals, a writing workshop in Guinea and participation in a film festival.

For now, Mariama Lab is focused on West Africa, but the ambition is ultimately to open it up to the entire continent.

"There’s a problem of breaking down the barriers within the African film market itself – there aren’t many bridges between countries within the cinema industry," explains Mathy Mendy, a coordinator on the programme for Collectif 50/50.

"Whether we have candidates from countries that speak French, English or Portuguese, it doesn't matter, the main thing is to bring together the synergies of female filmmakers and artists across Africa more broadly."

Mathy Mendy, a coordinator with the French NGO Collectif 50/50, promoting the Mariama Lab mentoring programme for West African women at the Cannes Film Festival, 19 May 2026. © RFI / Ollia Horton

Afronova: promoting African cinema at Cannes

From script to screen

The mentoring programme is starting by focusing on women directors, Mendy says, but in the long term they want to target every role in the production chain, from screenwriters to camera operators to editors.

"Collectif 50/50 observed that when women are behind the camera, they generally have a more gender balanced team," she notes.

Both Soro and Mathy agree that Africa has a dynamic film industry, but lacks the cinemas to show its work widely. Without broad distribution, African films often struggle to travel across the continent.

"Africans want to tell their own stories – especially women," Soro says. "There is a large audience that wants to see African content and this includes the diaspora."

She points to box office success stories like Diabang’s So Long a Letter, an adaptation of Mariama Ba’s novel that became a breakout hit in Senegal, and Marabout Chérie by Côte d’Ivoire’s Kadhy Touré, which drew thousands of filmgoers in West Africa before securing wider international distribution.

As for the participants in Mariama Lab, Mendy’s advice is "to listen to themselves, to trust themselves, to move forward".

"There will surely be obstacles, setbacks, but [they should] continue on this path because it's where they belong. Soon people will be talking about them, they're already talking about them, and before long they will be indispensable in the international film industry."

France among 15 countries to pledge to target illegal fishing with shared data

France is among 15 countries to have signed the Mombasa Declaration, unveiled at the Our Ocean Conference held in the Kenyan port city this week. The global agreement, aimed at combatting illegal and destructive fishing, commits countries to improved data collection and sharing of information on fishing vessels.

Issued on: 18/06/2026 - RFI

Fifteen countries signed the Mombasa Declaration on 17 June, including Ghana, pictured here. AFP/File

The 11th edition of the Our Ocean Conference began in Mombasa on Tuesday, its first time being held in Africa, bringing together politicians, NGOs, investors and innovators.

Since its first edition in 2014, organisers say it has led to more than 2,900 commitments valued at over $169 billion, covering marine conservation, sustainable fisheries, climate adaptation, security and pollution reduction.

The Mombasa Declaration signed on Wednesday commits to modernising vessel registries, better monitoring and sharing data with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Signatories include Belgium, Cameroon, Chile, Dominican Republic, France, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Somalia, South Korea and the Republic of Congo.

For years the fishing industry has resisted transparency, either to disguise illicit activity or simply to ensure competitors did not know about valuable hunting grounds, Tony Long, CEO of charity Global Fishing Watch told French news agency AFP.

Many ships also disguise their real owners, flying flags that have nothing to do with their true base of operations, he said.

Global Fishing Watch is launching a "world-first global map" during the conference, tracking every class of fishing vessel, including the so-called "dark fleet" that tries to hide its location.

"Too much of today's fishing remains invisible to those tasked with managing our ocean," said Long, vowing the map would "transform scattered, fragmented data into actionable insights for policymakers".

Many countries have come to see the long-term benefits of open data, notably since the UN's Sustainable Fisheries Resolution in 2024, which has put "transparency at the forefront of every discussion," Long said.
Disappearing dugongs

The issue is existential for local fishermen just a few kilometres up the Kenyan coast, who accuse large, foreign-crewed trawlers of destroying fish stocks and damaging the marine environment.

"This is making people here poor and dramatically changing the sea ocean bed which has depleted a lot of species in our area," said Awadh Mbarak, 53, secretary of a "beach management unit" in the coastal town of Kipini.

A retired fisherman from the same town, Twaha Yusuf, told AFP he had not seen a dugong, the beloved manatee-like sea mammals, for 40 years – and blames the trawlers.

"Maybe my son will not even see sea turtles in the future," he said.

Locals accuse trawlers of illegally trespassing in shallow waters reserved for small, local boats. But without publicly available data, it is impossible to hold them to account.

"Small-scale fishers are unable to feed their families. They're losing their livelihoods," said Maisey Pigeon of the Coalition for Fisheries Transparency, a Washington-based NGO.

"A lack of transparency enables things like illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, and also human rights and labour abuses on fishing vessels."

(with AFP)

EU leaders weigh new trade defences to counter China's export dominance

European Union leaders will debate on Thursday whether the bloc needs stronger trade defences to curb a surge of Chinese exports that Brussels sees as a threat to European industry and jobs.

Issued on: 18/06/2026 - RFI

Chinese-made cars being loaded on to a European freight ship for export at a port in Yantai, in China's eastern Shandong province, on 11 June 2026. © AFP

At a two-day summit in Brussels starting on Thursday evening, EU leaders will seek ways to reduce a growing imbalance in the flow of goods between Europe and China – which Brussels fears makes it vulnerable to potential coercion and supply shocks.

The bloc’s trade deficit in goods hit around €360 billion last year, meaning Chinese exports sharply exceeded those from the EU.

“Our trading relationship with China has reached a point that requires a reset. Not confrontation, but rebalancing,” EU trade chief Maros Sefcovic said.

One option would be to create a new tool to impose sector-specific tariffs, for example on chemicals or green technology.

French President Emmanuel Macron last month called for a “European equivalent of Section 301”, the trade tool used by US President Donald Trump to impose sweeping tariffs, arguing Europe’s “sovereignty is at stake”.

Germany has so far been cautious because its economy is more exposed to possible retaliation, while Spain has sought to avoid tensions as it pursues Chinese investment.

But Berlin appeared to be moving closer to France’s position. Germany was “open” to new tools if they were necessary, as long as they were “not targeted at specific recipients”, a German official told French news agency AFP.

Concern about China’s dominance is not limited to the EU. Fears are rising in the West over Beijing’s control of the market for rare earth minerals used in everyday electronic appliances.

China was also on the menu during talks between G7 leaders in France this week, after export controls imposed by Beijing on rare earths last year sent shockwaves through global supply chains.

Chinese investment in Europe hits seven-year high but rebound may be short-lived

China subsidies

Over dinner on Thursday, EU leaders will consider which existing tools the bloc can use to address the imbalance and whether new instruments and actions are needed.

The European Commission, which oversees EU trade policy, has pushed for tougher action. The discussion is expected to show how far the EU is ready to go to protect its industries, with leaders due to guide the commission on its next steps.

The commission is also considering whether to introduce safeguard measures for the chemicals industry, similar to those used for steel.

Brussels says fair competition is needed, pointing to the advantage Chinese companies gain from massive state subsidies.

Between 2005 and 2024, Chinese firms received around three to eight times more government support than firms in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the OECD said, calling the figure “a conservative estimate”.

Retaliation

Beijing has vowed to retaliate if the EU pushes through rules that would exclude certain products made outside the bloc from public contracts. After the EU imposed higher tariffs on Chinese electric cars in 2024, China imposed anti-dumping duties on European cognac.

The EU has shown little appetite for a broader trade war with China, and hopes dialogue can prevent escalation. Sefcovic has reportedly invited Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao to Brussels later this month.

The debate comes as Europe is also looking at alternative trade and energy routes, made more urgent by the Iran war’s shock to global fuel prices.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has expressed renewed interest in the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC), which is intended to improve transport, trade, energy and digital links.

“Alternative export routes have been created that are more resilient and offer choices,” von der Leyen told G7 leaders this week, citing IMEC as an example.

The corridor is seen as a possible way to diversify the EU's supply chains and strengthen energy security.

(with newswires)

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