Turkey seeks Black Sea shipping deal as attacks threaten grain trade


Issued on: 06/09/2026 - RFI


Turkey is racing to restore safe passage for cargo ships in the Black Sea as attacks on shipping disrupt grain exports and push up prices. Russia and Ukraine are major global wheat exporters, but Black Sea trade has been severely disrupted as both sides step up attacks on shipping and port infrastructure.

Commercial shipping in the Black Sea has been disrupted by growing attacks on vessels and ports, raising concerns over grain exports and prices. AP

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan announced this week that Turkey was working on a plan to ensure safe passage in the Black Sea for commercial shipping and said he was in touch with both Ukraine and Russia.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan confirmed that he raised the issue with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, on the sidelines of a gathering of regional leaders in Kyrgyzstan.

The Turkish move comes as Ukraine and Russia have ramped up their attacks on shipping and ports in and around the Black Sea. In 2022, Turkey and the United Nations brokered a deal between Ukraine and Russia to ensure safe passage for Ukrainian grain exports through the Black Sea.

The agreement lasted a year.

While Turkey has maintained good ties with both sides, reaching another agreement will be much harder, warned international relations professor Huseyin Bagci of Ankara’s Middle East Technical University.

“The tension is increasing more than ever before,” Bagci said. “It's not enough to have good relations, because the two sides – the Ukrainians and Russians – should sit down and talk about a common solution to this problem. Turkey cannot solve this problem alone.”

Growing attacks

In August Ukraine offered a ceasefire on commercial shipping, but the offer was rejected by Moscow, which said it wanted a broader deal. Ukrainian drones continue to strike Russian shipping, while Russia has continued missile attacks on Ukrainian ports and ships.

This surge in attacks comes as both nations rush to export their grain harvests.

Grain prices have risen sharply, by as much as 30 percent, international grain broker Can Atbasoglu said, even as both sides scramble to find new routes for their exports.

“Russia will do their best to export as much as they can, both from Russian Baltic ports and EU Baltic ports like Latvia and Lithuania; they're also exporting,” Atbasoglu said.

“Ukraine will also export as much as they can from Romania as well and through the Danube ports. But the export pace will be definitely lower. So it will definitely stay bullish for the markets. Prices are definitely going to stay like this or can have a further increase.”

Ships staying put

At one of Istanbul's many shipyards, the docks are crowded with ships that once braved the Black Sea. One vessel bears the scars of a drone attack and is under repair. Others undergo routine maintenance as shipowners hesitate to risk new journeys into dangerous waters.

The superintendent of one ship, speaking anonymously, says repairs are nearly finished, but uncertainty clouds the future.

“We wanted to take the ship out to the Black Sea before entering the shipyard, but because of that risk, we didn’t enter the Black Sea and didn’t take on any cargo. We’ve been in the shipyard for 50 days for repairs, but we don’t know what will happen once the repairs are finished,” the superintendent said.

Turkish shipowners warn that many are on the brink of bankruptcy, as idle ships rack up costs of up to 50,000 euros a month in mooring and crew expenses.

Ziya Ustel, CEO of Turkish shipping company VI-ZA STAR, says high freight rates are being offered for Black Sea routes, but the risks are too great.

“They are offering high freight rates, etc,” Ustel said.

Without a diplomatic solution, few shipowners will be prepared to risk their vessels, Ustel warned.

“The main thing is to find out a real solution,” Ustel added. “Otherwise, no one will try anything anymore.”
Turkish diplomacy

Ankara is expected to step up its efforts to find a solution.

Grain brokers say hopes of a diplomatic breakthrough may be one reason prices have so far remained below the record highs seen at the start of the war.

But if Turkish efforts fail and attacks on Black Sea shipping continue, higher grain prices could have a considerable impact, especially on the world’s poorest nations, many of which depend on Russian and Ukrainian grain.

By:Dorian Jones

British, French leaders hold talks on migrants and EU relations

London (AFP) – UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham and French President Emmanuel Macron held their first official talks on Thursday, with migrant boats, Ukraine and British-EU relations high on the agenda.


Issued on: 03/09/2026  

RFI

France's President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte Macron were welcomed by Britain's Prime Minister Andy Burnham and his wife Marie-France upon arrival at 10 Downing Street. © Ludovic MARIN / AFP

The meeting at Burnham's Downing Street office and residence came after the leaders celebrated bilateral ties with King Charles III at a preview of the fabled Bayeux Tapestry in London on Wednesday.

Burnham, in charge since 20 July, and his wife Marie-France van Heel welcomed the French leader and First Lady Brigitte Macron outside the famous black door of No 10 Downing Street.

Inside, Burnham told Macron he looked forward to discussing the Ukraine conflict, stopping small boat crossings of migrants from France to England and "strengthening the UK-EU relationship".

Macron said it was a "very important moment" for relations between the two countries, adding that they would also discuss "new initiatives" in the Middle East, without elaborating.

"I'm here with a willingness and a commitment to get closer and closer," he told Burnham.

Macron becomes the first European Union leader hosted at Downing Street by Burnham, although Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited in July.

For Macron the visit is significant as he approaches the final months of his presidential term, set to end May 2027.

'Work closer'

Burnham is eager to build on his predecessor Keir Starmer's efforts to forge closer post-Brexit cooperation with the European Union as he aims to boost sluggish UK growth.

He has said Britain must be "bolder" in getting closer to the EU but has refused to scrap Starmer's rejection of rejoining the bloc's single market or customs union and returning to its internal freedom of movement rules.

"I think 10 years on from Brexit, people here are fed up with the (lack of) vision, people see that we need to work closer together," Burnham told journalists late Wednesday.

Macron said Wednesday that Paris and London "do not always see eye to eye" but "we respect one another, remain open to discussing everything, including advancing the UK reset with the European Union".

Downing Street said the leaders would also focus on tackling the "emerging use of mega dinghies", or larger more powerful boats bringing irregular migrants to England's south coast.

In coming weeks, a "surge team" of 45 French officers will be deployed on beaches to tackle such launches, Downing Street said.

The UK recorded the lowest number of small boats carrying migrants crossing the Channel this summer since 2019, the government said Monday, touting the success of its enforcement deal with France.

'Goodwill'

However, in a Downing Street statement ahead of the meeting Burnham insisted "we cannot be complacent".

"Smuggling gangs are constantly adapting their  tactics,  and  the UK and France need to respond quickly," he added.

The British leader has committed to maintaining Britain's long-standing support for Ukraine in the face of Russian aggression, making Kyiv his first overseas trip last month.

Burnham and Macron shook hands at the top of the meeting © Ludovic MARIN / AFP

Macron and Starmer enjoyed good ties and adopted lead roles in the coalition of nations supporting Ukraine.

During Wednesday's speech at the British Museum, Macron hailed the UK's release to Ukraine of information on components for the long-range missile, SCALP, the French-produced version of the UK's Storm Shadow.

Accompanied by their wives, the leaders joined Charles and Queen Camilla at the museum, where they previewed the landmark Bayeux Tapestry exhibition ahead of its public opening next week.

"It shows what collaboration can achieve," Burnham told Macron on Thursday, saying France's loan to Britain of the almost thousand-year-old embroidery was a "huge personal gesture of goodwill, trust and friendship".

Macron played an instrumental role over nearly a decade in pushing for the tapestry loan, which is viewed as another step towards healing the rancour of the Brexit years.

The 11th-century work, which depicts the Norman conquest of England by William the Conqueror, arrived in London in July for a sell-out showcase that runs until July 2027.

How France and Britain’s far right are building a populist ‘entente cordiale’

Jordan Bardella will address Reform UK's party conference in Birmingham on Friday, putting the French far-right leader alongside Nigel Farage as both men seek to strengthen their political profiles. The appearance also marks closer ties between two of Europe's most successful populist radical-right parties that share similar positions on immigration but have not always been natural allies.


Issued on: 04/09/2026 - RFI

Jordan Bardella has been building his profile abroad and will address the Reform UK party conference in Birmingham as a keynote speaker on Friday. AFP - DIMITAR DILKOFF

By: Alison Hird

Bardella, 30, and 62-year-old Farage are from different generations but appear to appreciate one another.

“I am pleased to welcome Jordan to our party conference,” Farage said in a recent statement quoted by Politico. “He represents a new generation of political leaders who are standing up for their countries, their borders and their people.”

The two men met at a private members' club in London last December, where they discussed small boat crossings and energy.

"I think Nigel Farage will be the next prime minister of the United Kingdom, for a very simple reason: he has fought, sincerely, I believe, all his life, to defend the interests of his country, the interests of his people," Bardella told the BBC.

Presidential ambitions

Marine Le Pen has officially declared herself a candidate for the French presidency, with Bardella as her pick for prime minister.

But she will have to overturn a 2025 conviction for embezzling European Parliament funds in order to run. France's highest court is expected to issue its ruling just ahead of next April’s poll.

EU prosecutors launched a probe in May into a possible misappropriation of EU funds after a complaint alleged the RN had used European grants to benefit Bardella.

Despite this, Le Pen and Bardella are acting as though they will soon be in the Elysée Palace, with recent opinion putting them ahead at this stage.

The main benefit of appearing at the Reform conference “is for Bardella himself,” said political scientist Jean-Yves Camus.

“Travelling to Birmingham allows him to demonstrate that he is still actively campaigning and to support a political party whose agenda is close to his own.”

As well as leading the RN, Bardella is a member of the European Parliament with the Patriots group. In June, he toured Poland, where he met President Karol Nawrocki and Krzysztof Bosak, one of the leaders of the far-right Confederation coalition.

Following his trip to Birmingham, Bardella will head to the Ambrosetti Forum on Lake Como – a kind of Italian Davos – on Saturday.

Like Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who toured Europe to boost her international stature ahead of taking office in 2022, Bardella is keen to beef up his profile abroad and reassure public opinion that a far-right party is fit to govern France.

“Bardella has always been attached to the international credibility of the National Rally,” said one of Bardella's aides, reported in Politico. “He will give great attention to the international press during the campaign.”

The Nazi roots of today's global far-right movements

Common ground on immigration

The RN also stands to benefit from closer relations with Reform, a party whose positions are particularly close to its own on migration, Camus said.

The UK is not due to hold an election until 2029, but the Conservative right and Reform continue to put pressure on the government of new Labour Prime Minister Andy Burnham.

Like the National Rally, Farage is angling for power and has built up the party’s popularity on an anti-immigration ticket.

Outlining the party's proposed Channel migration plan on 3 August, Farage said: “Operation Fortress would be a joint military operation, it will save lives, help France fulfil its mission of blocking the boats, and we will make huge savings.”

Bardella, meanwhile, advocates turning the EU border agency Frontex into a tougher coastguard police force able to turn back illegal migrants.

The two parties and their supporters have “a lot of similarities,” said Stijn Van Kessel, professor of comparative politics at Queen Mary University of London, with immigration as “the number one theme”.

“Reform has also taken very radical positions in terms of deporting illegal migrants and stopping benefits to any foreign nationals.”

The conference gives both Bardella and Farage a platform to promote their parties as part of a broader radical-right movement, Van Kessel said.

“For Farage and other actors and politicians of the far right, it can be tempting to present themselves as part of a wave of successful new right figures that have the same general goal,” he said.

“So championing national sovereignty, stopping immigration... they like to present themselves as a broader movement that’s not only affecting their own country but across the globe.”

Arguably it's Farage that is most in need of shoring up his political credentials.

A YouGov poll published this week showed support for Reform had fallen over the past year, with Farage losing seven points since June.

He is facing a parliamentary standards investigation for allegedly failing to declare a €6 million donation before entering Parliament. Robert Lowe, a former Reform UK MP, also broke with the party last year and formed his own nationalist party, Restore, in February.

Despite this, Reform is “still a force to be reckoned with,” Van Kessel said.

From distance to closer ties

Farage, he added, “likes to portray Reform as right wing, not a radical right wing party,” but its proposals and supporters suggest otherwise.

“Reform is very similar to a lot of other populist, radical right parties that present themselves as a sort of voice of the ordinary people, the protectors of their nation and national customs ... that go against the elites that don’t speak in the name of the people and that are responsible for opening borders and creating more immigration.”

For years, however, Farage kept his distance from the National Front, as the National Rally was known until 2018.

As a member of the European Parliament with his former party UK Independence Party, or Ukip, Farage was “reluctant to associate himself with like-minded radical right parties abroad,” Van Kessel said.

“He shunned being in the same group as the main populist, radical right parties, including the National Front.”

That has changed, Van Kessel said, in part because Bardella and Le Pen have successfully rebranded the National Rally's image, distancing it from its racist and anti-Semitic predecessor and giving it more of an “image of respectability”.

The parties still differ over the European Union. Farage campaigned strongly for Brexit and the UK formally left the EU in January 2020, while the National Rally no longer supports leaving the bloc.

Both Bardella and Le Pen nevertheless remain “very eurosceptic,” Van Kessel said.

“So I would emphasise more the commonalities in their ideology rather than their differences.”

Playing the business card

The Reform UK conference is also a business convention and carries a hefty ticket price.

“It’s extraordinary, everything is behind a paywall,” Camus said. “The main debate, even the side events cost money, you can even have coffee with Nigel Farage in a lounge at Heathrow Airport if you pay an extra hundred euros or so.

"Even diplomats attending are being asked to pay £950.”

Bardella will be surrounded by businesspeople, investors and bankers, an environment suited to the self-described “business-friendly” politician.

“There’s a notable difference between him and Marine Le Pen, who is much more atuned to the expectations of her electorate, particularly working-class voters, whom she needs to hang on to for 2027,” Camus said.

“Bardella is much more in favour of creating a political environment in which companies, whether small businesses or CAC40 companies, can expand their profits.”

The conference therefore suits Bardella better than Le Pen, Camus said, with Bardella expected to deliver a speech in English.

“It suits her because the environment she would be entering is not really hers,” he said. “Bardella is certainly much more interested in meeting people who will be talking about artificial intelligence, banking systems and the economy more generally.”

Bardella is also likely to meet potential campaign fundraisers among Britain's “extremely multicultural” financial community, where “many French people work in financial institutions,” Camus said.

Le Pen has repeatedly said French banks refuse to lend her party campaign funds for political reasons, forcing it to seek foreign lenders, including Russia.

RN treasurer Kevin Pfeffer told Euractiv in July that the party was still looking for a bank loan to finance the campaign, whose costs are reimbursed only after the vote.

Bardella signs pact with Farage to stop small boat crossings 'forever'

Copyright AP Photo

By Estelle Nilsson-Julien

Published on 04/09/2026 - EURONEWS

At the Reform UK Party conference on Friday, Nigel Farage and Jordan Bardella signed an agreement, vowing to end irregular migrant crossings "forever", should their respective parties come to power.

On Friday, Jordan Bardella of the far-right National Rally party signed a "memorandum of understanding" with Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, aimed at stopping the boats "forever" — should their parties come to power — at the party's annual conference in Birmingham

Farage and Bardella signed the agreement which vows to end irregular migrant crossing on stage. The Reform UK leader hailed the deal as a "genuine new entente cordiale" between the two countries and political parties.

Bardella — who is hoping to become France's next Prime Minister — said that "the United Kingdom must not be the destination for illegal immigrants entering France. They must be sent back to their countries of origin.”

Delivering his speech in English, something he rarely does, he accused French President Emmanuel Macron of "failing" to protect France. Switching to French for the press conference that followed his speech, Bardella argued that “if France managed its borders better, no one would leave Calais.”

Bardella and Farage's meeting followed the French President's trip to London on Thursday, where he met with British Prime Minister Andy Burnham to discuss how to "scale up" efforts to tackle illegal crossings and strengthen the UK's relationship with Europe.

Britain's Labour government said this week that the UK had recorded the lowest number of boats carrying migrants and asylum seekers across the Channel from France to England this summer since 2019.

Tense past relations with the National Rally party

Farage and Bardella last met in December last year at a private members' club in London. But despite their shared eurosceptic views, Farage has not always had a smooth relationship with the National Rally Party — or with Le Pen.

In 2014, Le Pen accused Farage of "aggression" against her party, after he refused to form an alliance with the National Rally party (which at the time was known as the National Front) in the European Parliament due to what he described as the party's "anti-Semitism and general prejudice."

When questioned about his past ties to the National Rally party by the press, Farage conceded on Friday that he had been “nervous” about the National Front, founded by Jean-Marie Le Pen, when he began his career as a member of the European Parliament in 1999.

“When Marine took over, I observed the situation; I didn’t get involved right away. What she has accomplished, namely ridding the party of those extremist elements and bringing it into the mainstream is a considerable achievement", said Farage.

Reform UK led national polls in the UK for over a year until July, but the party's standing has slumped in recent weeks amid multiple scandals involving allegations of irregular political funding.

On Friday, hours before Reform's conference was set to begin, Farage's Reform UK was reported to the Metropolitan Police and the Electoral Commission over alleged illegal donations.

This followed an undercover investigation aired by British broadcaster Channel 4 News, in which an investigative group called Verbatim posed as a wealthy American financier and his UK-based son. Under UK law, donations from foreign investors are illegal.

Monoskop.org

https://monoskop.org/images/9/95/Hardt_Michael_Negri_Antonio_Empire.pdf

EMPIRE - Monoskop 

4.3 The Multitude against Empire. 393. Notes. 415. Index. 473. Page 11. PREFACE. Empire is materializing before our very eyes. Over the past several decades, as ...

Rebels-library.org

http://rebels-library.org/files/multitude.pdf

MULTITUDE - Rebel Studies Library 

Page 1. MULTITUDE. WAR AND DEMOCRACY. IN THE AGE OF EMPIRE. MICHAEL HARDT ... Empire calls on war for its legitimation, the multitude calls on democracy as its ...

Newleftreview.org

https://newleftreview.org/issues/ii120/articles/empire-twenty-years-on.pdf

EMPIRE, TWENTY YEARS ON | New Left Review 

Just as today's. Empire was formed in response to the insurgencies of the multitudes from below, so too, potentially, it could fall to them, as long as those.

ANTI MIGRANT RIGHT WING 

'Protest' at Port of Dover causes delays to ferry services as masked men descend on the town

Copyright Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved

By Nathan Rennolds

Published on 05/09/2026 -  EURONEWS

"No arrests were made. Traffic is flowing normally, and all involved had dispersed by midday," Kent police said in an update on Saturday afternoon.

Dozens of masked men dressed in all black descended on the Port of Dover on Saturday morning in what police have described as a "protest."

Port authorities said there was an "ongoing public order incident" happening across the town, which is a key passenger hub for ferry services between the UK and mainland Europe.

The Port of Dover has since confirmed that "operations have returned to normal," with routes in and out of Dover and the port open and traffic "moving freely."

It had earlier said the incident was "affecting all routes in and out the port and town.

P&O Ferries, which operates a ferry from Dover to Calais, said its services were operating with delays of up to an hour following the disruption.

Video footage circulating online shows protesters - many wearing balaclavas, hoods and hats - gathering in the Kent town and chanting.

Far-right anti-immigration activist Tommy Robinson shared a video of the protest on his X account, writing in the caption: "British patriots send a warning shot to the establishment in Dover this morning."

"Patriots can organise and gather huge numbers without the need for social media. Watch this grow," he continued, adding: "We want our country back."

Mike Tapp, the Labour MP for Dover and Deal, criticised those involved in another post on X, telling protesters to go home and saying he was speaking with police.

"Dover Park Run cancelled, port access disrupted, the lives of residents made more difficult," he wrote.

"I am fed up with idiots coming to Dover to cause disruption. I bet if you asked any one of those 'protesters' they wouldn’t know small boat crossing are down by 40%," Tapp added, referring to migrant Channel crossings.

Officers from Kent police attended the scene and were "engaging with protesters," according to the force.

"No arrests were made. Traffic is flowing normally, and all involved had dispersed by midday," it added in an update on Saturday afternoon.

How China’s Paracel expansion extends its military reach towards Vietnam

China is rapidly expanding two artificial islands in the disputed Paracel Islands, with analysts saying the new facilities could strengthen Beijing’s military reach towards Vietnam and along key South China Sea shipping routes.


Issued on: 04/09/2026 - RFI

Satellite image dated 17 August 2026 showing an artificial island built by China in the disputed Paracel Islands in the South China Sea. © Satellite image ©2026 Vantor

In just a few months, China has transformed two previously unused sandbanks into artificial islands bearing the hallmarks of military installations. After building around 20 outposts across the South China Sea since 2013, Beijing has resumed construction in waters disputed by several of its neighbours, notably Vietnam.

A mysterious triangular concrete structure, a harbour and a long strip of reclaimed land resembling a runway have emerged since China began major dredging and construction work in the Paracels in December 2025.

Satellite imagery analysed by the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI) shows the rapid transformation of two sandbanks that Beijing had previously left undeveloped.

“We cannot say for certain yet, but all the evidence suggests that China is building a very large military base on Antelope Reef,” Harrison Prétat, deputy director and researcher at AMTI, a project funded by the Washington-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies, said.


Possible military base

Across roughly six square kilometres in the heart of the South China Sea, sand has been covered with concrete and sections of coral reef appear to have been cleared to accommodate the steady movement of ships.

Military analysts are closely watching the work, although the precise purpose of the new facilities remains unclear.

“On Yagong Island, 14 kilometres from Antelope Reef, it looks like support facilities for the military base,” Prétat said. “The most likely scenario would be the construction of detection and radar equipment to support the base at Antelope.”

Much of the attention has focused on a large triangular concrete structure at the centre of the small island, which analysts believe could eventually house surveillance equipment.

That interpretation would fit with Beijing’s broader network of strategic outposts along major commercial and military routes.

“It’s like a fortress in the desert,” said Hugo Tierny, a military historian at the École pratique des hautes études and researcher at France’s Institute for Strategic Research, Irsem.

“It provides a permanent location for monitoring movements, a harbour for ships, facilities for launching aircraft, and all of it monitored by radar.”

Between 2013 and 2017, Beijing sharply expanded its network of outposts as it sought to reinforce its claims over the South China Sea, more than 90 percent of which it considers its own.

AMTI said China already operates around 20 militarised outposts in the Paracels, which are also claimed by Vietnam, compared with seven in the Spratly Islands closer to the Philippines.

Until now, many Chinese installations have followed a relatively standard pattern.

“China has been carrying out a sort of ‘copy-and-paste’ of facilities across its various outposts,” Prétat said. “But what we are seeing on Yagong Island does not exactly resemble any type of structure already seen in the South China Sea.”

Vietnam in view

If construction continues at its current pace, the function of the new structures may soon become clearer. Their location, however, already offers clues to Beijing’s intentions.

Around 400 kilometres off the Vietnamese coast and roughly midway between the Taiwan Strait and the Strait of Malacca – two of Asia’s most strategically sensitive maritime chokepoints – China is creating what would be the second-largest artificial island in the Paracel archipelago.

Vietnam, which claims sovereignty over the islands, has demanded that Beijing “immediately halt construction”, describing the work as “illegal”.

Hanoi has traditionally been less outspoken than Manila in challenging China’s activities in the South China Sea. But while maintaining close relations with Beijing, Vietnam has also pursued a more assertive strategy of its own.

It has built around 20 artificial islands, increased defence spending and diversified its military partnerships, including with Russia, the US and France.

“The main purpose of new detection equipment at this location is to have more sensors directed directly towards Vietnam,” Prétat said.

“Nothing obstructs the equipment’s ability to scan the maritime area as far as the Vietnamese coast. This provides a clear line of sight that is slightly different from those they already have.”

The site could also strengthen China’s ability to support its coastguard presence in the area, resupply vessels and reinforce its claim of sovereignty – particularly towards Vietnamese fishermen and sailors operating nearby.

Wider regional strategy

The new installations also form part of a wider strategic calculation involving Washington.

“The Chinese are continuing their policy of developing strategic depth to the south of their coastline,” Tierny said. “In the event of regional escalation, they believe, in particular, that this will hinder the US Navy’s access from the south and strengthen their defensive perimeter.”

Each additional base also offers China another potential logistical and military fallback point.

Although the Paracels lie more than 1,000 kilometres from Taiwan, a stronger Chinese foothold in the area could prove valuable in the event of a wider regional conflict – particularly if Beijing were to attempt the “reunification” with Taiwan repeatedly advocated by Chinese President Xi Jinping through military force

This article was adapted from the original version in French by RFI's Nicolas Rocca

Women in Zimbabwe push for recognition of 'invisible' domestic labour

Mutare, Zimbabwe – In Zimbabwe, women and girls overwhelmingly bear the burden of domestic labour – costing them opportunities outside the home. New policies are being considered to recognise the value of this unpaid work.

Issued on: 30/08/2026 - 

Women in Zimbabwe spend much of their time doing household chores, limiting their opportunities to study or earn. © Farai Shawn Matiashe

By:  Farai Shawn Matiashe


Every day, before delivering custom-sewn clothes to her clients’ doorsteps in eastern Zimbabwe, Cecilia Makumbe first takes care of all the household chores.

“I clean the house, do laundry, fetch water and water the garden,” the 43-year-old mother of four, who lives in Mafuke village outside Mutare, Zimbabwe’s fourth largest city, told RFI.

“By the time I start my sewing job, I am already exhausted.”

In her village, there is limited access to resources like water and clean cooking stoves.

Makumbe walks nearly a kilometre to fetch water from a shallow well because the nearest community borehole is double the distance away.

Cecilia Makumbe on her way to deliver custom-made clothes to her clients in Mutare. © Farai Shawn Matiashe

Unequal burden

Her story is similar to that of many Zimbabwean women who are losing opportunities because of the time they spend providing unpaid labour.

Proposed legislation known as the Unpaid Care and Domestic Work Bill aims to address this. Drafted in 2024, it seeks to put in place policies to support women and girls who carry out the overwhelming majority of domestic labour.

While the bill has not yet been enacted, its supporters are renewing their push. A motion to formally recognise chores like cooking and cleaning as essential economic labour was first introduced in parliament late last year and debated by legislators this week.

Sizalokuhle Ncube, a communications manager at the Women’s Academy for Leadership and Political Excellence, a women’s rights organisation lobbying for the cause, says unpaid care and domestic work is not a private household issue – it has economic, social and political consequences.

“Women continue to carry a disproportionate share of cooking, cleaning, childcare, caring for older persons and persons with disabilities, collecting water and other essential household responsibilities,” she said.

Women who live in areas of Zimbabwe with limited access to clean water do their laundry using water from rivers and shallow wells. © Farai Shawn Matiashe

Women spend about 5.9 hours a day on unpaid care, domestic and volunteer work, compared with 3.8 hours for men, according to a 2025 survey conducted by the state-owned Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency.

Ncube says unpaid workload limits women’s time, economic opportunities, participation in public life and political leadership.

Makumbe took a six-month sewing course, but she could not further her studies because she had to take care of children after she got married.

“I could not afford childcare. So I could not continue,” she said.

Easing the load

On 20 August, lawmakers in the National Assembly, Zimbabwe’s lower house of parliament, debated the motion to recognise domestic and unpaid care work as a critical part of national development.

Lawmakers agreed the government should develop a comprehensive policy on unpaid domestic labour, and put money into infrastructure and social protection programmes that would help ease the workload. They also called for a survey to calculate the economic value of such labour and its contribution to GDP.

Senator Maybe Mbowa, chair of the Zimbabwe Women’s Parliamentary Caucus, says those backing the motion want concrete steps to make chores safer and less time-consuming.

“It is not that we want salaries. We simply want the government to intervene and reduce the burden of domestic work on women,” she told RFI.

“We want the introduction of clean cooking initiatives like gas and solar-powered boreholes in rural areas to reduce the time women walk to get clean water and fetch firewood.”

Many women in Zimbabwe prepare meals using firewood that they collect themselves. 

© Farai Shawn Matiashe

With a gender-responsive budget that addresses their needs, Mbowa says, women will use the time saved to build the economy.

The government, in partnership with international humanitarian organisations, says it is already promoting clean cookstoves and installing solar-powered boreholes in rural areas.

“We are promoting clean cooking technologies which reduce time spent collecting firewood and exposure to health risks,” said Mavis Sibanda, a permanent secretary for the Ministry of Women Affairs.

The state is also investing in rural water supplies “to reduce the time women spend on essential household tasks like fetching water”, she said.

African precedents

Ncube says women’s demands are that care work be recognised, valued, redistributed and supported through public policy.

“We want care to be treated as an issue of economic justice, gender equality and public policy, not as an invisible responsibility that automatically falls on women,” she said.

Zimbabwe is not the first country in Africa to take action on unpaid domestic labour.

Kenya last year adopted a National Care Policy, which seeks to recognise, reduce and redistribute unpaid care while improving conditions for paid care workers.

And in 2024, Rwanda revised its family law to explicitly recognise unpaid care work as contributing to marital property and value it at 10 to 39 percent of jointly acquired assets.

It has also deployed energy-efficient cookstoves and tanks to collect rainwater in communities across the country.

Makumbe hopes Zimbabwe can adopt similar measures, and that greater access to safe water and clean cooking technologies will ease the burden of her household responsibilities.

“I want to have more time for my sewing and to expand my business,” she said.

From labels to Netflix, how Quebec's fight to protect French collides with US trade

French-language protections in Quebec have emerged as an unlikely source of friction between Canada and the United States, bringing rules designed to protect French in overwhelmingly English-speaking North America into a much bigger fight over trade.


Issued on: 01/09/2026 - RFI

US President Donald Trump speaks with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney during a G7 working lunch in Evian-les-Bains, France, on 16 June 2026. The two countries have clashed over trade issues including Quebec's protections for French language and culture. © (Evelyn Hockstein/Pool Photo via AP

By:  Anne-Marie Bissada



Prime Minister Mark Carney instructed Canadian negotiators to walk away from trade talks in Washington on 21 August after the two sides failed to reach a deal. The breakdown centred on much broader disagreements over US tariffs, access to the Canadian market and Canada's ability to protect key industries.

But French language and culture were also among the issues raised during the negotiations.

"We were not prepared to compromise on the protection of the French language and our culture," Carney said on 22 August, adding that Washington had pushed on those issues "until the very last minute".

US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer disputed Canada's account, saying French-language protections were not a US "red line".

The immediate disagreement has since eased. Last Thursday, Canada's minister responsible for US trade, Dominic LeBlanc, said Washington had withdrawn its objections over French-language labelling and the visibility of French-language content online, and had confirmed that measures promoting French and Canadian culture would not face future US trade action.

But the episode exposed a much older and politically sensitive question: why are rules protecting French in Quebec a matter for US trade officials at all?

Tracing Canada's French language

"The promise of French in Quebec dates back to pre-Confederation, the Quebec Act of 1774," Christopher Skeete, Quebec's Minister of International Relations and La Francophonie, whose portfolio includes promoting Quebec's interests and French language and culture internationally, told RFI.

"The British Crown promised Quebecker francophones in Canada that their language and their culture would always be protected."

French-language rights have evolved considerably since then. Quebec's 1977 Charter of the French Language, known as Bill 101, made French the province's official language and established it as the normal language of government, work, education and business.

Canada has two official languages, English and French, whose equal status in federal institutions is protected by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Around 22 percent of Canada's population has French as its first official language spoken, with the vast majority of francophones living in Quebec and close to 1 million elsewhere in the country.

Quebec also has extensive trade ties with the United States, meaning its language rules can directly affect American companies selling goods and services in the province.

Those tensions are not new. Canada has long sought exemptions for cultural policy in trade agreements with the US, from the 1980s Canada-US Free Trade Agreement through NAFTA and its successor CUSMA. Despite US objections, those agreements allowed Canada to retain protections for its cultural industries.


From Bill 101 to Bill 96

Quebec strengthened its language protections with Bill 96, passed in 2022.

The US government's 2025 report on foreign trade barriers listed the law as a technical barrier to trade with Canada. It said American businesses would have to review non-French trademarks on product packaging and labelling and translate into French parts containing a "generic term" or a "description of the product".

"For instance, if you want to sell a microwave in Quebec, you have to have French instructions on how to operate the microwave," Skeete said.

The US had also raised concerns about the rules at the World Trade Organisation's Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade in 2024.

"Bill 96 is an add-on to Bill 101 to address certain gaps that we found in Bill 101 that were leading to an erosion of French in Quebec," Skeete said.

With English the majority language across North America, French "is always going to be fragile", he added.

Quebec went further with Bill 109, adopted in December 2025, bringing the protection of French into the digital sphere.

"People have a right to be presented with their content [streaming sites, Netflix, Spotify, etc.] in their francophone content," Skeete said.

The promotion of local culture on American streaming platforms "is seen as an imposition or a barrier to trade", he added.

Enforcing French

The debate is not confined to governments and trade negotiators.

Benoit Dubreuil, Quebec's Commissioner of the French Language, heads an independent institution that monitors the provincial government's implementation of its Charter of the French Language.

For several years, there has been discussion in Quebec and at the national level about new laws and provisions that could further strengthen and stabilise French, he told RFI. That includes requirements for businesses to use French and, in the current trade dispute, regulation of digital platforms.

For businesses in Quebec, language rules are enforced by the Quebec Office of the French Language, or OQLF. Its officers check that businesses comply with requirements including rules on public and commercial signs, where French must be markedly predominant over text in another language.

Mathieu Cleroux, the owner and founder of Lièvre Rouge, a chalet retreat in northern Quebec, is a francophone who completed his secondary and university studies in English.

He told RFI he does not take issue with the language laws.

"A majority of my customers are francophone and being in Quebec and French [speaking] is part of my identity," he said.

Much of his public communication is in French, but he does not see the requirements as an obstacle.

"I don't see it [language laws] as a barrier to doing business."

Pressure to use English

For those charged with protecting French, the concern goes beyond individual rules governing businesses.

"Despite the fact that Canada is officially a bilingual country, in reality English is a much more powerful language than French," Dubreuil said.

French speakers therefore "feel pressure to use English", he added.

In 2023, the Canadian government strengthened its official languages legislation.

The Act for the Substantive Equality of Canada's Official Languages "recognised the vulnerability of the French language in the North American context and the need to take positive measures to promote the French language in key sectors," Linda Cardinal, a political scientist and professor emeritus at the University of Ottawa who specialises in French-language policy, told RFI.

For Cardinal, protecting French and culture in trade negotiations is nothing new.

"The Quebec government has always been clear on the issue," she said. "All former trade agreements with the United States included a disposition on cultural exception, meaning that language and culture are not to be part of or affected by any trade deal."

Data-rich systems and weak security: why France is a target for cyberattacks

France is one of Europe's biggest targets for cyberattacks. While its political and economic importance make it a mark for foreign governments, criminals are increasingly exploiting gaps in cybersecurity to access the vast amounts of personal data in the country's interconnected public systems.


Issued on: 05/09/2026 - RFI

France has become a major cybercrime target, because its interconnected public systems hold vast amounts of personal data while security gaps and a lack of resources have left vulnerabilities. © Kacper Pempel/Reuters

By:  Sarah Elzas


“We may be one of the most targeted countries,” says Benoît Grünemwald, a cybersecurity expert with ESET, a Slovakia-based company that provides security services in France, Europe and beyond. “We are in the top five for sure.”

But he is careful not to suggest that France is unique.

“It’s not only France that is targeted, it’s all countries going digital,” he says. “European countries are going more and more digital, and being digital means having the opportunity to be breached.”

France's political and economic weight make it a target for foreign governments – notably its support for Ukraine, which has drawn attacks linked to Russia.


But attacks are increasingly going after personal data, exploiting systems that are centralised and interconnected, and not always as protected as they should be.

Cracks in the fortress

France’s national cybersecurity agency, ANSSI, recorded 3,586 security events in 2025, up from 831 in 2022.

Incidents spiked at 4,386 in 2024, the year Paris hosted the Olympic and Paralympic Games and became a high-profile target for disruption.

According to ANSSI's most recent figures, the use of ransomware – when attackers install malware to hold sensitive data or systems hostage until a ransom is paid – has gone down slightly from previous years. Yet data exfiltration – when attackers steal information without necessarily touching the systems themselves – increased significantly.

Attackers continue to exploit vulnerabilities in French systems that were designed for a different way of using computers, Grünemwald says.

“When you move from the fortress model, where all the people physically came to Bercy [the Economy Ministry] to work on a desktop and without access from outside, that model is constantly changing,” he says.

Covid-19 accelerated a shift in how systems are used and accessed.

“With Covid, we had the necessity to have some people working from home. And so the doors, in many ways, were opened, but with not enough budget or resources to secure them,” Grünemwald says, referring to remote access points into systems and databases that lack basic protections like two-factor authentication.

“These are basic things, which are not fulfilled. So there is an issue.”

'Easy to hack'

Work habits are changing, as are the demands for collaboration, as different parts of government increasingly need to share information.

ANSSI's 2025 annual report says the education and healthcare sectors, as well as ministries and local government, experienced the large majority of known incidents because of the sheer number of organisations operating in them.

But private entities may be less likely to report security events to the state, the agency points out, cautioning that its figures do not necessarily reflect all incidents impacting France’s various industries.

ANSSI says attackers target systems linked to the internet and “edge devices” like firewalls and anti-spam gateways, often exploiting vulnerabilities using methods that are not particularly sophisticated.

ZeroBytes, the group that said it stole data belonging to nearly 700,000 individuals and businesses in attacks on the tax administration this summer, told the AFP news agency that French organisations are targets because they are “easy to hack”.

In 2024, a massive amount of personal data was stolen in a string of attacks on public organisations, including the employment agency France Travail and healthcare payment operators.

France, a centralised country, has systems that relate to each other, particularly as administrations share information to make public services more convenient for users. This multiplies the spoils once attackers get in.

“The interconnection of databases is an issue in regards to data privacy,” Grünemwald says. “In France, when you breach a system, you can access multiple databases.”

Rapid detection crucial

But Grünemwald does not believe interconnected databases make France a target in the first place. “We are not attacked because we have multiple databases. The success of these attacks is because there is not sufficient protection on one or more databases.”

Once an attacker gets inside a system, the speed of detection becomes critical.

“The most important is how long the attacker will be alone in the system,” Grünemwald explains. “One minute, two minutes, 20 minutes, one hour, three days, one week? You should be able to react to an attack.”

The objective is not to prevent every intrusion – it is to make sure that attackers who gain access cannot remain inside long enough to commit a serious breach. That's something France has struggled to do.

The French tax system was breached three times this summer, in June, July and August. The intrusions were detected, but not the data theft. That was only revealed when the attacker advertised the stolen data in August, more than a month later.

Lack of resources

The underlying problem, Grünemwald argues, is one of resources and priorities.

“We lack resources in controlling the breaches,” he says. Those resources are human and technical, with artificial intelligence tools maybe forming part of the solution.

France has invested in protecting critical national security systems and infrastructure, but the latest breaches suggest it has not done enough to safeguard personal data.

They are perhaps a wake-up call – much like a string of ransomware and other attacks that hit hospitals during and after the Covid pandemic, disrupting administrative systems and in some cases, clinical operations.

The government and ANSSI introduced a programme in 2021 to raise the security level of 135 healthcare establishments, including around 100 hospitals. While ransomware attacks have not disappeared since then, their impact has proven less critical.

Perhaps the clearest example of what can be done with investment, preparation and coordination is the security put in place around the 2024 Olympics.

ANSSI warned of attacks motivated by money, espionage or attempts to damage France's reputation, while the organising committee expected eight to 10 times as many cyberattacks as during the Tokyo Games.

Yet despite a flurry of attempts, the Games were not disrupted.

“We were targeted with many attacks and no one succeed enough to interrupt the Games,” Grünemwald says.

“When we have the budget, the resources, the human, the cooperation between law enforcement, private companies, Olympic committees, it works. It’s not 100 percent, but it works.”