What Al-Sharaa’s White House Visit Means For US-Syrian Relations And Syria’s Global Standing – Analysis

November 12, 2025

Arab News
By Jonathan Gornall

Nothing perhaps better illustrates the dramatic geopolitical shift underway in the Middle East than the footage that emerged on Sunday of Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa playing basketball with Admiral Brad Cooper, commander of the US military’s Central Command.

The footage, apparently filmed the day before Al-Sharaa’s historic meeting with US President Donald Trump at the White House, was released on social media by Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Al-Shaibani, along with a simple caption: “Work hard, play harder.”

The Syrian president has certainly been working hard.

Not that many years ago, the commander of CENTCOM, responsible for all US military operations in the Middle East, had his sights set on Al-Sharaa as a designated terrorist with a $10 million bounty on his head.

Now, here he was shooting hoops with the man CENTCOM had once been under orders to shoot to kill.

It was not the first time Al-Sharaa has rubbed shoulders with a former enemy. In September, he shared a stage at the 2025 Concordia Annual Summit in New York with David Petraeus, the retired US general.

In 2006, Petraeus was commander of the US troops in Iraq who captured Al-Sharaa, then an insurgent, and imprisoned him for five years.

At the summit in September, Petraeus admitted he was “a fan” of his former enemy, adding: “His trajectory from insurgent leader to head of state has been one of the most dramatic political transformations in recent Middle Eastern history.”

It is only 11 months since Bashar Assad was overthrown after 24 years in power — the last 13 of which Syria spent engulfed in a bloody civil war.

Yet in those 11 months, Syria’s international rehabilitation and the acceptance of Al-Sharaa has been as fast and comprehensive as it has been dramatic.

Monday’s meeting in Washington between Trump and Al-Sharaa was the culmination of months of pragmatic diplomacy by the US and its allies in the region — and of a determination by Al-Sharaa to prove he is a president for all Syrians.

In February, Al-Sharaa’s very first foreign trip as leader was to Saudi Arabia, where he met with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

In September, Al-Sharaa made history when he became the first Syrian leader to address the UN General Assembly in six decades.

In those 60 years, he said, Syria had fallen “under the rule of a tyrannical regime that ignored the value of the land it ruled, and oppressed a kind and peaceful people.” Now, Syria was “reclaiming its rightful place among the nations of the world.”

He added: “On behalf of the Syrian people, I extend gratitude to all who stood by their cause, who aided them in their tragedy, who welcomed them in their countries, and to all nations and peoples who rejoiced in the victory of the Syrian people’s will, and who stand with them today in their march toward peace and prosperity.”

Particular thanks, he said, went to Saudi Arabia, Turkiye, Qatar, the US, and the EU.

The following month, Al-Sharaa was back in Riyadh, this time for the Future Investment Initiative conference. At a session attended by the crown prince, Al-Sharaa made no secret of the importance he placed on Saudi support.

“Our first external visit was to Saudi Arabia because we recognize that the key to the world lies here in the Kingdom,” he said.

The immediate prelude to Monday’s historic meeting in the White House was the removal of Al-Sharaa and his interior minister, Anas Hasan Khattab, from the UN Security Council’s sanctions list targeting Daesh and Al-Qaeda.

In May, Trump announced he planned to lift US sanctions on Syria to “give them a chance at greatness.”

The sanctions, he said, “were brutal and crippling and served as an important — really an important function — nevertheless, at the time. But now it’s their time to shine … So, I say good luck, Syria. Show us something very special.”

In a statement at the time, the White House said: “The world should take notice — if you want to take meaningful steps towards peace and stability, then the US is willing to move rapidly to support you.”

Trump, it added, believes “there is great potential in working with Syria to stop radicalism, improve relations, and secure peace in the Middle East.”

At the time, restrictions on trade and investment in Syria, imposed under the US Caesar Act, were suspended for six months.

On Monday, that suspension was renewed for a further six months, permitting “the transfer of most basic civilian use US-origin goods, as well as software and technology, to or within Syria.”

Syria had sought the complete removal of restrictions rather than a further suspension. It is clear the US remains prepared to wield the Caesar Act as both a carrot and a stick.

The suspension of the act, said US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a statement, “supports Syria’s efforts to rebuild its economy, restore ties with foreign partners, and foster prosperity and peace for all its citizens.”

Trump, he added, had “made clear the US expects to see concrete actions by the Syrian government to turn the page on the past and work towards peace in the region.”

When Trump and Al-Sharaa met and shook hands in Riyadh in May, it was the first meeting between a US and Syrian leader for a quarter of a century.

At the time, Al-Sharaa still had a $10 million bounty on his head as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist — a decade-long designation that was only formally withdrawn on Friday last week.

Al-Sharaa was the leader of Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, formerly the Syrian off-shoot of Al-Qaeda, which emerged as an independent group in 2016 and went on to overthrow the Assad regime. The US designation of HTS as a foreign terrorist organization was revoked in July.

Since then, the State Department has sought to persuade the other 14 members of the UN Security Council to remove restrictions on Syria’s new leadership. The result was Resolution 2799, adopted with just one abstention by China on Thursday.

After the UN vote, Trump said Al-Sharaa was “doing a very good job. It’s a tough neighborhood, and he’s a tough guy, but I got along with him very well. And a lot of progress has been made with Syria.”

Burcu Ozcelik, a senior research fellow at the London-based defense and security think tank RUSI, said the outcome of the vote will allow Syria to confront several challenges.

“The moderation trajectory of Al-Sharaa’s approach to government and his own pragmatism, if harnessed and supported by the international community, can wield economic and democratic dividends for Syria,” she told Arab News.

“But we need to be realistic about the severity of the multisided pressures on Al-Sharaa’s rule and the herculean task of building Syria.”

A report in October by the World Bank said that nearly one third of the country’s “pre-conflict gross capital stock” was damaged, and estimated the cost of reconstruction at $216 billion — about ten times Syria’s projected gross domestic product for 2024.

But the report made clear there was an appetite for investment in the new Syria among the 189 member states of the World Bank, an international cooperative which provides low- or no-interest loans and grants to developing countries.

“The challenges ahead are immense, but the World Bank stands ready to work alongside the Syrian people and the international community to support recovery and reconstruction,” said Jean-Christophe Carret, World Bank Middle East division director, in October.

“Collective commitment, coordinated action, and a comprehensive, structured support program are critical to helping Syria on its path to recovery and long-term development.”

Funding aside, Al-Sharaa also faces internal political challenges.


“We also need to recognize that the federalism debate for the future governance of Syria is not one that is taken up seriously inside the country — it is largely an externally driven set of ideas,” said Ozcelik.

Nevertheless, “pragmatic diplomacy can be a constructive driver of change in Syria, and Monday’s meeting is a reflection of the much-needed mood of optimism that Al-Sharaa has been able to muster for the country.”

She added: “The external legitimation offered by President Trump is important, but it needs to be matched with domestic and inclusive political legitimation within Syria. This will take time but is essential for the country’s stabilization.”

Sanam Vakil, director of the Middle East and North Africa program at the London-based think tank Chatham House, told Arab News: “Al-Sharaa’s visit to the White House marks a pivotal reset in US-Syria relations.

“By welcoming him and signalling support for sanctions relief, the Trump administration is betting that engagement can yield greater regional stability than containment ever did.”

The move, she added, also “reflects Washington’s recognition of Syria’s strategic role, not just in counter-terrorism and regional energy routes but also as a country searching for stability and economic renewal after decades of war and external interference.”

After Monday’s White House meeting, it emerged that Syria had agreed to join the Global Coalition Against Daesh, formed in 2014, becoming the 90th country to do so and joining regional members including Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and Jordan.

According to a US statement, Syria was “partnering with the US to eliminate ISIS (Daesh) remnants and halt foreign fighter flows.” The US, it added, “will allow Syria to resume operations at its Embassy in Washington to further counterterrorism, security, and economic coordination.”

Trump’s invitation for the new Syrian government to join the coalition “signals a new level of trust in Al-Sharaa and his administration,” Caroline Rose, director of the Crime-Conflict Nexus and Military Withdrawals portfolios at the New Lines Institute, told Arab News.

“Over this last year, Washington and Damascus have coordinated closely and have exchanged intelligence regarding ISIS (Daesh) activity, facilitating tip-offs that prevented several ISIS attempted attacks.”

The US, she said, also wants to bring about “a security integration deal” between Damascus and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, which have discussed integration but have clashed with the forces of the new government on a number of occasions.

“The US seeks to use Syria’s admittance into the Global Coalition as a tool to expedite talks and pressure both sides to reach relative consensus.”

Arab News

Arab News is Saudi Arabia's first English-language newspaper. It was founded in 1975 by Hisham and Mohammed Ali Hafiz. Today, it is one of 29 publications produced by Saudi Research & Publishing Company (SRPC), a subsidiary of Saudi Research & Marketing Group (SRMG).

Syrian leader in Washington: Start of a new regional order?

Cathrin Schaer

DW

November 12, 2025

This week, Syria joined the US-led global coalition fighting the "Islamic State." But Syria's move is a much bigger deal than membership of the coalition. It's potentially a sign of regional realignment, experts say.

Syrian interim president Ahmad al-Sharaa's (left) visit to the White House this week was the first ever by a Syrian leader

Image: SANA/AFP

Long-time observers of politics in the Middle East called it a "surreal" moment.

Syria's interim president, Ahmad al-Sharaa, who formerly fought with al-Qaeda and was jailed by the US as a terrorist, was welcomed at the White House by US President Donald Trump — even if he and his delegation did arrive for the meeting through a side door.

Also surreal for some: The fact that a former al-Qaeda member would then also sign his country up to the global coalition fighting the extremist "Islamic State" group. The "Islamic State," or "IS," group was originally an offshoot of al-Qaeda in Iraq.

But in fact, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the militia group al-Sharaa eventually formed actually split from al-Qaeda in 2016, and focused more on fighting the regime of Syrian dictator Bashar Assad. The militia, known as HTS, was also opposed to the "IS" group and battled it inside Syria for years.

US fighter jets deployed against 'IS': This week Syria joined neighbors, Turkey, Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon, as well as the European Union and NATO, in the global coalition to defeat the 'Islamic State' group

Image: Staff Sgt. Shawn Nickel/US AIR FORCE /AFP

'Islamic State' in Syria still dangerous

So, Syria becoming the 90th member of what is officially called the Global Coalition against Daesh (the organization uses the Arabic acronym for the "IS" group) actually makes sense. It is also a logical move because "IS" remains a threat inside Syria.

Between 2,500 and 3,000 "IS" loyalists are still in Syria and in the year since the Assad regime was ousted, they have increased their activities.

"[The 'IS' group] thrives on instability and chaos," Tanya Mehra, a researcher at the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism, or ICCT, in the Netherlands, wrote in a recent opinion piece. "The more internal fighting among rebel groups and the more the de facto government has to deal with attacks from neighboring [countries], the more favorable the situation becomes for ISIS," using another common acronym for "IS."

The "IS" group exploited security chaos following the fall of the Assad regime to reestablish presence in parts of Syria it had previously left, researchers at the Washington-based Middle East Institute, or MEI, confirmed in an October analysis.

Syrian media say that the 'IS' group has been activating sleeper cells inside camps housing 'IS' families and fighters, as well as trying to recruit more fighters there

Image: Delil Souleiman/AFP/Getty Images

Extremists' new strategy

The group now operates with much smaller cells, of only around 10 fighters each, who conduct rapid night ambushes or plant improvised explosive devices. Also in "IS's" revised repertoire are lone wolf attacks, blackmail to fund its operations —­ it apparently offers new recruits $400 (€346) a month in pay — and exploiting the intercommunal divisions that already threaten Syria's stability.

Syrian media reports that the group has been trying to recruit more members and gain favor with locals by targeting former members of the Assad regime. It is trying to sell itself as the only party that will take real revenge and achieve "justice" after 14 years of civil war. The group has also been trying to infiltrate the ranks of the new Syrian security forces, in order to spy, recruit and sell itself there too, Syrian journalists say.

"According to field observers, these developments reflect a shift toward a strategy of 'flexible dormancy,'" the MEI researchers explained, "centered on endurance and disruption rather than territorial control."

As "IS" activities have increased, so have operations by Syrian security forces against it. Last weekend, Syrian security forces conducted over 60 raids around the country, arresting 71 individuals associated with the "IS" group. Some of those raids were reportedly based on information received from the US. And in other cases, too, the Syrians had already been cooperating with the global coalition, well before officially becoming members this week.

A bigger deal than it seems?

There are more implications to Syria joining the global coalition than just the ongoing fight to contain extremist violence.

The move will likely impact Syrian Kurdish groups that control northern parts of Syria and who have been negotiating with the government in Damascus as to how and where they fit into the new Syrian political system.

Syria's Kurds were semi-independent throughout the civil war and the main Kurdish group, the Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF, played an essential role battling the "IS" group between 2014 and 2019. The SDF now manages large camps and several prisons, holding an estimated 45,000 "IS" members and their families.

As a result, the SDF became the US's most important partners on the ground, combatting the "IS" group and receiving funding, arms and training from the Americans.

But now that the Syrian government also plans to play an official part in combatting the "IS" group, that will "undermine the SDF's exclusive status as the coalition's [only] official partner in Syria, thereby weakening its leverage in negotiations with the Syrian government," MEI researchers argued.

But it could also lead to better relations between Damascus and the SDF, the ICCT's Mehra told DW. "The SDF have been crucial in combatting 'IS' and I don't necessarily see al-Sharaa joining the anti-Daesh coalition as a step back," she argues. "The government in Damascus will hopefully rely on integrated SDF fighters who have considerable experience in combatting 'IS.'"

Currently there are still around 2,000 American troops in SDF-controlled areas, there to help the Syrian Kurds combat the 'IS' group

Image: Delil Souleiman/AFP/Getty Images

Over the past week, news agency Reuters has also reported rumors that, as a result of Syria joining the coalition, the US might establish a base near Damascus.

Local media reported that a delegation from the global coalition against "IS" visited Al-Seen air base, around 80 kilometers (50 miles) from Damascus in the Syrian desert. There are also rumors that a Trump hotel or tower could be built in Damascus.

Observers say a new US base would put to rest suspicions about al-Sharaa's own previous links to extremist groups in some American quarters, as well as assuage Israeli fears about Syria becoming a threat to it. Such a US presence would also diminish the influence of other countries in Syria, including Iran, Russia and even Turkey.

"This is part of the larger picture … I think it is more than symbolic," Mehra suggests.

"All signs point toward a US vision of integrating the new Syria firmly into the Washington-led regional order," Marc Lynch, a professor of political science and international affairs at George Washington University, wrote in Foreign Policy magazine this week. This "represents one of the shrewdest things the Trump administration has done in the Middle East," Lynch added on his personal blog.

There are basically two main obstacles to this working out, Lynch suggests. Al-Sharaa's ability to navigate intercommunal divisions, including with the SDF, and Israel, the academic says.

"Israel has stood defiantly outside this US-led support for al-Sharaa's state-building efforts," Lynch writes. "If the US really does establish an air base in Damascus, it would quickly be forced to grapple with the fact that the most dangerous and destabilizing external threat to Syria currently is Israel. That makes Syria the unexpected leading edge of the little-noticed emerging divide in priorities between the US and Israel, which could have wide-ranging implications for the regional order," Lynch concluded.

Syria's al-Sharaa to meet Trump at the White Hous 02:04

Cathrin Schaer Author for the Middle East desk.

For A Partnership That Brings Justice For The African People: Joint Statement In View Of 7th AU-EU Summit

November 12, 2025

By Eurasia Review


The 7th AU-EU summit, taking place in the AU’s Year of Reparations, must offer reparations for historical injustices and exploitation inflicted on the African continent

From Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM)

In this Jubilee Year 2025 – a special year of forgiveness and reconciliation that the Catholic Church celebrates every 25 years – and as we soon begin the African Union’s decade of reparations, we welcome the 7th AU-EU summit as an opportunity to work together on the building blocks of an equitable partnership between the two regions.

Speaking from the direct experiences of our communities and people we serve, among them those experiencing poverty and hunger, farmers, fisherfolk, pastoralists, Indigenous Peoples, women and youth, we take this occasion to advocate for a fair and responsible AU-EU partnership. We reaffirm our commitment to social, environmental and global justice, while denouncing false climate solutions, a development model based on extractivism and the commodification of nature.

We urge the leaders gathered in Luanda to place the dignity of our peoples at the heart of AU-EU relations. This requires decisive choices across various fields. We recognise the efforts of many EU initiatives to help advance human development. At the same time, however, as we witness that several of these initiatives seem to replicate extractive patterns of the past, we share our concerns regarding the EU’s increased focus on its geopolitical and economic interests, at the expense of justice and solidarity with African people, of their needs and of their aspirations. Taking this path would not lead to a true partnership, one that seeks to address existing imbalances and is oriented towards genuine mutual benefit.

In this statement, we therefore particularly wish to address some key challenges we see in the areas of energy and climate partnerships, Global Gateway, food systems and debt, and to offer perspectives on how joint action on these areas may better serve the objective of integral human development.


From extractivist energy deals to fair partnerships and democratic energy systems

The race for critical raw materials (CRM) is devastating territories, sacrificing communities, and it risks reinforcing historical patterns of extractivism. It is taking place within systems that put profit above people and that treat land, water, and minerals – the foundations of life on Earth – as commodities for foreign profit rather than as common goods to be stewarded with care and for the benefit of all.

In this context, African countries are seeking to break with historic patterns of extraction and commodity dependence, to keep more of the processing of their own resources on their soil and to unlock more domestic value addition. This requires a different industrial partnership between European and African countries, in which Europe does not turn to an overly protectionist “Europe first” approach. Such an approach would undermine the potential of strengthening ties between both regions, weaken the EU’s trade relations at a critical juncture, go against Africa’s local beneficiation objectives and the realisation of her true potential, and erode global climate and environmental goals. European policymakers must recognise that the EU’s own supply chain security agenda cannot be achieved through domestic processing alone, and that true partnership with African countries can only be built if it is aligned with Africa’s value addition ambitions.

In general, the EU’s cooperation with African countries on critical raw materials (CRM) is taking place under non-binding frameworks, such as the Global Gateway investment package, Strategic Partnerships under the Critical Raw Materials Act, and Clean Trade and Investment Partnerships. It is also influenced by the EU’s Free Trade Agreements, which include legally binding provisions that often leave little room for partner countries to maintain control over their mineral resources. To be better partners, the EU and European governments must translate the EU’s declared support for local value addition in African countries into tangible action. This includes agreeing on a clear common definition of “value addition”, establishing specific and binding technical and financial assistance commitments on the sharing of knowledge, technology and skills, and using robust monitoring and enforcement mechanisms.

For Europe-Africa partnerships to foster equitable, responsible and sustainable mineral resource management, it is also essential to reconsider the overall model of energy production, and to ensure that benefits associated with renewable energy and mineral production, such as revenue and jobs, are felt by local communities and producer countries.

Renewable energy megaprojects, often imposed without properly consulting local populations, concentrate economic power, lack transparency and destroy ecosystems. Instead, bi-regional relations should promote democratic, decentralised renewable energy systems, with community management and rooted in local territories. The AU-EU partnership can do so by (1) strengthening public involvement in funding, ownership and control of renewable energy projects, (2) focusing on small-scale projects that target those furthest behind, (3) supporting the cooperative and social economy (such as renewable energy communities), (4) upholding Indigenous Peoples’ rights and knowledge, (5) enhancing monitoring and enforcement capabilities regarding social and environmental standards, and (6) designing projects for domestic and regional markets, not solely for export.

From industrial food production to agroecology

Hunger is not a production problem, it is a justice issue, related to the sharing of resources and financial access. Hunger, malnutrition and food insecurity persist in Africa today largely due to the logic and priorities of a development model that is designed to maximise economic growth. Industrial agriculture, marked by monoculture, large-scale production and the use of advanced technologies, chemical inputs, genetically modified or hybrid seeds and synthetic fertilisers, focuses on increasing food production to maximise economic returns, favouring profit accumulation by big agribusiness. It contributes to greenhouse gas emissions, water and air pollution, biodiversity loss and soil degradation. It shifts away from traditional, diversified diets and impacts on human health. It enables the concentration and abuse of power by large-scale agribusiness and sidelines smallholder farmers from decision-making. It disregards ancestral and embodied knowledge and diverse local experiences, worldviews and traditions, and undermines the food and seed sovereignty and self-determination of local communities.

The AU-EU partnership must support a transformation of agriculture that breaks free from this exploitative and extractive way of farming and from the dependency on imported fertilisers, chemical inputs, and genetically modified seeds. This includes promoting agroecology – a tested and proven model for climate resilience among rural communities – which the EU could help to do by establishing clear, binding EU guidelines and directing financing channels towards support for agroecology.



It also includes protecting and promoting farmer-managed seed systems that enable the preservation of traditional crop species, the development of local varieties adapted to farmers’ specific needs, the self-sufficiency of farmers and environmental stewardship. These systems are rooted in knowledge, values and wisdom built up over thousands of years and provide a strong basis for people to respond to their own needs for healthy, culturally-adapted foods. Criminalising farmers for saving and exchanging seeds or imposing rigid intellectual property regimes or corporate agendas violates both their rights and the planet’s needs.

This transformation further requires policy coherence and an end to double standards. Pesticides that are prohibited to be used in European agriculture because of the harm they cause to people’s health or the environment should no longer be produced for export to outside the EU, including Africa.

We urge leaders gathered in Luanda to shift the focus from production, efficiency and profit, and to work together on an agricultural model organised to address matters of justice, foster equitable resource distribution and protect our ecosystems.
From excessive consumption to joyful sobriety

Switching to renewable sources of energy, increasing energy efficiency and investing in agroecology have an important role to play, but this is not enough. Alignment with planetary boundaries requires ambitious energy sufficiency policies.

Recent EU energy and climate partnerships with African countries have been designed based on minerals demand predictions that assume a significant increase in energy consumption in Europe. They lack serious efforts to address excessive consumption in Europe, which would be essential to reduce the social and environmental pressure on resource-rich countries and to care for our common home. Europeans must recognise that, past a certain level, greater material consumption is not linked with an improvement in wellbeing, and that they can no longer sustain an economic model that exploits people and resources without limit. The AU-EU partnership must be based on the recognition of the ecological limits of the planet and place care for life in all its forms at its centre.

We urge European leaders to recognise their historical responsibility for the transgression of planetary boundaries and to adopt policies aimed at demand production and consumption reduction, which would lower the EU’s over-reliance on imported energy more rapidly – increasing its resilience to potential shocks – and prevent further social and environmental impacts on African territories. This includes scaling down ecologically destructive industries in Europe and establishing binding EU material footprint reduction targets. These are necessary, concrete steps to guarantee what is necessary for a dignified life for Europeans, for Africans, for all.
From debt trap to debt justice

The current debt crisis is the worst in history, affecting over 40 African countries. Many are spending more than 20% or even 30% of government income on foreign debt service, facing the impossible choice between paying interest on unsustainable debts and investing on education, health and climate action. This also pushes export-oriented African countries to intensify extraction and the export of natural resources to fulfil debt repayment obligations (in USD), instead of organising their economy based on domestic consumption needs, democratic decision-making, self-determination and care for the environment.

The present crisis did not arise by coincidence or solely from domestic factors. Many countries in Africa inherited debt accumulated by their colonial authorities, and many former colonies were forced to pay compensation to former European rulers for the loss of income resulting from the liberation of enslaved people. In the absence of an international democratic governance of debt, the process of taking on new loans or renegotiating existing debts has happened on highly unfavourable terms for African countries, with creditors holding too much power, and negotiations being carried out without transparency, standard rules or sufficient civil society involvement. Excessive borrowing costs have been heavily influenced by the credit industry, dominated by powerful Western credit rating agencies. The G20 Common Framework for Debt Treatments has failed to deliver the expected results, being slow, creditor-driven and not fit for purpose.



In the face of this model that concentrates income and increases poverty, we urge African leaders to no longer accept debt that is one sided and debt workout mechanisms that are not meant to free African societies. We urge European governments to recognise that much of the debt that has been accumulated is illegitimate, unjust and unsustainable.

Europe has a responsibility to support Debt Relief Initiatives. We urge the leaders at the summit to take seriously the calls for urgent debt restructuring as well asdebt cancellation, to be implemented without economic policy conditions. The success of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative showed that debt can indeed be cancelled, and debt cancellation must not be a means to encroach on the economic sovereignty of countries overburdened by unfair and unsustainable debt conditions. Further, leaders should support the establishment of an African Credit Rating Agency to overcome the current oligopoly of credit rating agencies and support reforms of international financial market and banking regulation that disadvantage the countries of the global south.

We also echo major recent reports on debt – Jubilee Debt Report the Cape Town Declaration of the African Leaders Debt Relief Initiative, the Lomé Declaration of the AU – which bring an unequivocal call for systemic reforms of the international finance architecture. In this Jubilee Year, it is our hope that European leaders will follow up on the outcome of the 4th Financing for Development Conference and support the AU’s call for the establishment of a debt resolution mechanism at the UN level. Such a mechanism would provide a space for democratic deliberation about the rules governing borrowing and lending and to compel all creditors (public, multilateral, and private) to come together and accept binding conditions that favor sustainable development.

Ending the debt trap is not about generosity, it is about justice and true partnership, and about making a strategic choice to invest in global stability.
From EU-centric investment strategies to people-centered development

Breaking with historical patterns of extraction and unsustainable debt also requires revising the Global Gateway model. The Global Gateway Africa-Europe Investment Package, though in principle, was designed to strengthen partnership with Africa and accelerate her Agenda 2063, has remained largely EU-driven, with priorities designed in Brussels and projects reflecting Europe’s strategic interests in securing critical raw materials, energy imports, and migration control, rather than Africa’s developmental agenda.

The Global Gateway was designed to help “create market opportunities” for European businesses, provides funding mainly through loans, and lacks robust mechanisms for transparency and civil society engagement and for publicly accountable control of critical infrastructure. Such a model contradicts the EU’s “development cooperation” primary purpose of eradicating poverty and reducing inequalities and is at odds with EU Treaties and the EU’s external budget Regulation. It risks diverting scarce public resources from poverty and inequalities reduction in places and countries that need them the most and in sectors such as health, education and social protection.



What we need instead is a model rooted in sovereignty, self-sufficiency, transparency and local leadership and value addition. In practice, this means public-public partnership projects, grants-based finance, prioritisation of local companies, a legally-binding human rights and environmental framework, and an active role for local civil society in the selection, design, and implementation of all projects.
In view of a partnership that brings justice for the African people

The 7th AU-EU summit, taking place in the AU’s Year of Reparations, must offer reparations for historical injustices and exploitation inflicted on the African continent. Europeans must acknowledge the root causes of present issues, and that the legacy of colonialism and slavery continues to shape struggles of extractive economies and debt crises. Concrete steps from the EU’s side regarding local value-addition, democratic energy systems, promoting agroecological principles and practices, as well as debt resolution, are all key to address the root causes of poverty and inequality in Africa – neither aid, nor investments with suffice – and they are all part of a process of addressing historical injustices. This is how European leaders can pave the way for a forward-looking relationship with African countries. This is how the AU-EU partnership can be at the service of life.Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Union (COMECE)
Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM)
Caritas Africa
Caritas Middle East and North Africa
Caritas Europa
CIDSE (Coopération internationale pour le développement et la solidarité)

Nigeria: Ken Saro-Wiwa's fight against pollution lives on

Philipp Sandner

DW

November 10, 2025

Thirty years ago, nine environmental activists from the Niger Delta were executed. They have since been honored but the protest against oil pollution continues.

The Bodo River in the Niger Delta is so heavily polluted that using the water for drinking and fishing is banned

Image: Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP/Getty Images

The late Nigerian writer and teacher Ken Saro-Wiwa put the disastrous oil extraction in the Niger Delta on the international agenda and dispelled the notion that oil would bring prosperity to Nigeria.

"If we had a proper system, they would find that there is not so much oil money around anyway," Saro-Wiwa told DW in November 1993.

"Oil is causing a lot of devastation, which the country has not paid for and which it will pay for in due course. So people should go and look for other sources of sustenance instead of eyeing oil," he said.

A few days later, General Sani Abacha established a brutal dictatorship in Nigeria. Two years after that, Saro-Wiwa — along with eight other activists, known as the "Ogoni 9" — was dead.

Their supporters say the activists were murdered by a corrupt system wanting to continue profiting from oil extraction. Yet Saro-Wiwa's legacy lives on.

Ken Saro-Wiwa, seen here during a protest in 1993, became a pioneer of environmental activism in Nigeria

Image: AFP/Greenpeace/dpa/picture alliance

Nnimmo Bassey, now one of the most prominent environmental activists in the Niger Delta, calls him a "courageous man" and a "visionary."

"He was very much ahead of his time," Bassey told DW.

Destructive oil extraction begins in the Niger Delta

In the 1950s, Shell, then a Dutch company, discovered oil in the Niger Delta. It kicked off unchecked environmental destruction — against the will of the Ogoni people living there. Soon, oil pollution became visible: water was no longer drinkable, large areas were no longer suitable for farming. Decades of protests by Ogoni representatives were unsuccessful.

The resistance gained new momentum when Saro-Wiwa, already known as an author and playwright, founded the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) in 1990. MOSOP argued Shell's activities were destroying the region's environment and did not benefit local people.

The organization garnered global attention, and in 1994, Saro-Wiwa and MOSOP won the prestigious international Right Livelihood Award.

Saro-Wiwa's resistance

Nnimmo Bassey, also an author and Right Livelihood laureate, says Saro-Wiwa was fearless: "People like to be more politically correct. But he just called what was going on: an environmental genocide against the Ogoni people."

Nnimmo Bassey — like Saro-Wiwa — received the Right Livelihood Award, and his activism took him to events such as the 2022 World Climate Conference in Egypt

Image: Sean Gallup/Getty Images

In 2011, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) published the first scientific analysis of the pollution, confirming oil production in Ogoniland had indeed led to an ecological disaster.

Saro-Wiwa's protest movement also threatened to disrupt oil operations. In early 1993, MOSOP organized a peaceful protest involving nearly 300,000 Ogoni in Rivers State. Shortly afterward, Shell withdrew most of its staff for safety reasons and drastically cut production. Saro-Wiwa told DW in November of the same year: "When the federal government takes away 97% of the oil money, but does not take away 97% of the pollution, it is doing something wrong."

Nigeria's military dictatorship

After Abacha seized power, tensions escalated. The government exploited divisions within the protest movement. In May 1994, four Ogoni leaders were murdered. The government blamed Saro-Wiwa and eight other Ogoni leaders. Despite international support and awards for Saro-Wiwa and MOSOP, the Ogoni 9 were sentenced to death and hanged on November 10, 1995.

The executions sparked global outrage, leading to Nigeria's suspension from the Commonwealth of Nations for more than three years.

There were international protests — here in Berlin in 1995 — against the execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa and his eight fellow activists

Image: Peer Grimm/ZB/picture alliance

Some witnesses later claimed they had been bribed by the government or said Shell had promised them jobs. Shell's exact role could never be fully clarified. In 2009, the oil company paid a total of $15.5 million (around €13 million today) to the relatives of the Ogoni 9. Shell said this was a "humanitarian gesture" and not an admission of guilt.
Little progress

Economist Priscilla Airohi-Alikor from the Centre for the Study of the African Economies sees slow progress on oil pollution in the Niger Delta. She says one key success of the MOSOP movement is that "Shell has not drilled oil in Ogoniland since 1993."

Yet leaks from oil facilities continued to pollute the environment.

After the Abacha dictatorship, Nigeria established the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC). In 2016, then-President Muhammadu Buhari followed a UN recommendation to launch a multi-billion dollar effort to clean up the Niger Delta.

Partial victories against Shell were hard-won — with actions like this one in 2021 

in The Hague

Image: Mike Corder/AP Photo/picture alliance

Shell's responsibility remains a crucial point: in 2021, after a long legal battle, the company was ordered to compensate farmers in the Niger Delta.

"In most cases, they've actually settled with a lot of these communities," says Airohi-Alikor.

"But it's on the admission that they shouldn't be held liable for what these communities are suffering. The company has also evaded a cleanup of the community."

Shell argues most of the pollution was due to sabotage, Airohi-Alikor says.

In June, a British court ruled that Shell can indeed be held liable for environmental damage in the Niger Delta. Whether this will lead to binding verdicts is unclear.
Pardon 'not enough'

Thirty years after the execution of the Ogoni 9, Nigeria's government announced the pardon of Ken Saro-Wiwa and his fellow activists, granting them high national honors. The four previously murdered Ogoni leaders were also honored.

For Nnimmo Bassey, this is a mockery: "That is not enough. You do not pardon a man who did not commit an offence."

Accepting a pardon, he says, is an admission of guilt. Bassey is also outraged that Nigeria is holding talks on new oil production in the Niger Delta — while the old damage is far from repaired. Shell now wants to shift to deep-sea drilling, thereby evading national jurisdictions. He argues it is time to leave the fossil fuel era behind.
The cost of oil

Depending on the data source, oil, petroleum products, and gas generates 85% to 92% of Nigeria's export revenues.

Nigeria is also being battered by climate change related flooding and heat waves — and urgently needs resources to cope with these impacts, says expert Priscilla Airohi-Alikor. Ken Saro-Wiwa's warning not to rely too heavily on oil revenues sounds prophetic to her: "If the country does not take action in due course, oil revenues would go into cleaning up of these communities. If we account for the environmental cost of gas flaring or oil spillage you find that the nation is at a loss."

This article was originally published in German.

Ogonis wary of more oil drilling in Niger Delta

Bello Muhammad

DW

November 10, 2025

Whispers of renewed oil drilling in the Niger Delta may promise prospects for much-needed infrastructure and job creation. But oil extraction is also blamed for impoverishing the area through environmental devastation.

Land smothered in oil: A villager's feet in Ogoniland are drenched in crude oil that poisons rivers and farmlands

Image: Muhammad Bello/DW

Amid the tropical heat, intense humidity, and foggy greenery of the delta, deserted houses are all that remain of what was once the bubbling and thriving community of Goi. Situated deep in Nigeria's Niger Delta, around 50 kilometers from the regional center Port Harcourt, Goi was just one of 10 Ogoniland communities devastated by severe oil spills in 2008.

Signs near the river bank prohibit using the water source, warning of crude oil contamination. It's emblematic of how oil extraction and spills have left slick scars in the Niger Delta.

Despite oil being extracted from the Niger Delta since the 1950s, the resource certainly does not seem to have enriched the local communities. In fact the precious resource has been blamed for destroying the agricultural livelihoods of the Ogoni people. In the 1990s, Ogoni activists such as Ken Saro-Wiwa and others drew the world's attention to the crippling effects of oil extraction in Ogoniland, which resulted in Shell, the biggest multinational in the area, stopping drilling operations in 1993. It also cost Saro-Wiwa and other activists their lives.

But the United Nations Environmental Program's (UNEP) landmark assessment in 2011 laid bare just how severely oil extraction had damaged Ogoniland, and Nigeria's federal government declared a state of emergency.

It initiated the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP) to address the environmental damage caused by oil spills, particularly in Ogoniland. Despite some relief, the cleanup's progress is slow, with key stakeholders continue to disagree on priorities.
Delta villages poisoned

Some of the riverine communities, intertidal creeks and shorelines of Bodo West are heavily polluted. Mangrove vegetation, vital for regulating water flows and storing carbon, have been destroyed. Water bodies around various communities are contaminated with hydrocarbons that decimate fish populations.

But it's not just the water bodies suffering: extensive soil contamination, sometimes meters deep, can be seen across the land, even from the air, including areas like Nisisoken Ogale and Ejama Ebubu. Ground water, which is the primary source of drinking water for many communities, is still heavily contaminated with benzene type toxins. As a result, affected farms deliver poor, or unconsumable, crop yields.


Nearby Bori, the capital of Ogoniland, is visibly more lively, with businesses and social activities picking up. Recently, about 100 Ogoni youths completed three months of an intensive training program initiated by the UN Development Programme and Global Environment Facility (GEF). They learnt about solar energy installation, maintenance systems and business models.

But such opportunities are few and far between. DW spoke to young Ogonis in various Niger Delta communities who expressed fears of a bleak future: opportunities destroyed, and environmental devastation that cripples farming and fishing, which also hold ancestral and cultural value. Many also fear the mooted resumption of oil drilling in Ogoniland, which had been iced since 1993.

Bleak prospects

Godsgift Stella, an entrepreneur in southern Kono Boue community, told DW how her business prospects remain meagre.

"There are no jobs for the youths and this encourages social vices," the 27-year-old said, adding that environment pollution had robbed farmers and fishers of livelihoods, and caused them them to migrate to Bori.

"It is tough, things have not changed a bit, people are still dying of hunger, youths go out to steal in broad daylight. If our lands were all cleaned up, and we go back to farm, things will not be like this," she said.

Why oil-rich Nigeria can still not fuel its economy  08:11

Electrical technician Joel Yigale, 36, from the Biem-gwara community, said oil drilling should not resume.

"The basic thing the federal government ought to do is deal with the Ogoni Bill of Rights. As far as I know this has not been attended to, these are some requirements we the Ogoni youths want," he said.

The Ogoni Bill of Rights,adopted in August 1990, calls for greater autonomy and control over resources in Ogoniland. Yigale points out that oil drilling brings back painful memories, saying that as many as "4,000 people" were killed in protests related to oil extraction.

"It is very tough for me, no jobs, poverty worries me as it stands, there is no help coming from anywhere, our lands and water are polluted, no fish in the river," Yigale said.
Oil: Cause or answer to Ogoniland woes?

But veteran Ogoni broadcaster Bamene Tanem told DW the majority of Ogonis were open to oil exploration if it is conducted safely and responsibly, and there are tangible benefits.

Tanem said the Nigerian government had shown reasonable seriousness by conducting discussions with local people.

"The major road that links Ogoni people, the East-West road, is being reconstructed now. The seriousness is very clear. But a lot needs to be done. HYPREP is constructing a standard hospital, the issue of portable water is being addressed in most of our Ogoni communities and that is impressive," he said.

Shell blames organized crime for oil losses  01:33

Building, and in many cases repairing, infrastructure will take time. In 2011, the UN estimated it would take 30 years to clean up the oil-rich Niger Delta. Along with many abandoned or neglected oil facilities, crude oil leaks remain a menace, and oil thieves continue to operated illegal, "artisanal" refineries, causing new spills and new contamination.

Despite this, the paramount ruler of Dee Eewa village in Khana Local Government Area, Chief Magnus Edooh, also supports oil drilling.

"I am 100% in total support of oil resumption in Ogoniland, we want our community to develop. We are more informed than before, so no oil company can use oil without developing Ogoni. There should be total agreement between the Ogoni people and the federal government," he told DW.

Edited by: Cai Nebe

United States: French TotalEnergies To Supply Renewable Power To Google’s Data Centers For 15 Years

TotalEnergies’ Montpelier solar farm in Ohio. Photo Credit: TotalEnergies

November 12, 2025
By Eurasia Review


TotalEnergies and Google have signed a 15-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) to supply Google with a total volume of 1.5 TWh of certified renewable electricity from TotalEnergies’ Montpelier solar farm in Ohio. The solar facility, nearing completion, is connected to the PJM grid system — the largest in the United States —and will support Google’s data center operations in Ohio.



The deal reflects Google’s strategy of enabling new, carbon-free energy to the grid systems where they operate. It also aligns with TotalEnergies’ strategy to deliver tailored energy solutions for data centers, which accounted for almost 3% of the world’s energy demand in 2024.

“Strengthening the grid by deploying more reliable and clean energy is crucial for supporting the digital infrastructure that businesses and individuals depend on,” said Will Conkling, Director of Clean Energy and Power, Google. “Our collaboration with TotalEnergies will help power our data centers and the broader economic growth of Ohio.“

“We are delighted to strengthen our partnership with Google with this agreement to supply renewable electricity to their data centers in Ohio,” said Stéphane Michel, President Gas, Renewables & Power at TotalEnergies. “This agreement illustrates TotalEnergies’s ability to meet the growing energy demands of major tech companies by leveraging its integrated portfolio of renewable and flexible assets. It also contributes to achieving our target of 12% profitability in the power sector.“

TotalEnergies is deploying a 10 GW portfolio in the United States, with onshore solar, wind and battery storage projects, 1 GW of which is located in the PJM market in the northeast of the country, and 4 GW on the ERCOT market in Texas.

This PPA with Google follow those already signed by TotalEnergies with several other major corporations, including Data4, STMicroelectronics, Saint-Gobain, Air Liquide, Amazon, LyondellBasell, Merck, Microsoft, Orange and Sasol.

Serbs protest Kushner-backed Belgrade project at army site

Richard Connor 

DW with AFP, AP

Thousands of Serbs have protested vowing to stop a $500 million luxury project linked to US President Donald Trump's son-in-law. Belgrade has fast-tracked the plan despite anger over corruption and a historical legacy.

The protest against the controversial development has been led by students

Image: Darko Vojinovic/AP Photo/picture alliance

Thousands of protesters in Belgrade staged a dramatic demonstration on Tuesday against the planned redevelopment of Serbia's former Yugoslav Army headquarters, a site destroyed during the 1999 NATO bombing campaign.

The site's protected status as a cultural asset was lifted last year, triggering an investigation into alleged document forgery and anger over perceived corruption.
Why is the site so sensitive?

The student-led rally saw participants form a symbolic human chain around the ruins, which the government has leased for 99 years to Affinity Global Development, a company linked to US President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner.

The crowd drew red lines on the pavement, declaring the area "untouchable."

President Aleksandar Vucic's government last week passed a special law classifying the $500 million (€431 million) project as "urgent” granting it expedited permits despite legal challenges. Critics call the complex an architectural monument and a symbol of Serbia's defiance against the US-led bombing campaign. They say replacing a bombed war relic with luxury towers would erase a painful part of national history still seen by many as unjust "aggression."

Serbia protesters welcome EU's rebuke of police violence  03:07

Prosecutors are probing whether the revocation was manipulated to clear the way for Kushner's Miami-based firm and its Emirati partner Eagle Hills, which already oversees major redevelopment along Belgrade's Sava River.

"This government has decided to pass a special law to legalize its crime," student activist Valentina Moravcevic told N1 television. "They can now legally destroy this building, but we will not allow it."

Why does Belgrade want the development?

Serbia's government argues the Kushner-backed project will strengthen economic ties with Washington, which has imposed tariffs on Serbian imports and sanctioned the country's Russian-controlled oil monopoly.

The protest is the latest in a yearlong wave of anti-government demonstrations over corruption and safety standards. Anger intensified after a canopy collapse at a train station in Novi Sad last year killed 16 people, an incident widely blamed on crony contracting.

Edited by: Dmytro Hubenko

Richard Connor Reporting on stories from around the world, with a particular focus on Europe — especially Germany.

Dozens protest Austrian parliament event honoring antisemite

Kate Hairsine 

DW with AFP, KNA

12/11/2025

Protesters rallied in Vienna against an event dedicated to Franz Dinghofer, an Austrian politician who was a self-confessed antisemite and a Nazi party member.

A protester holds up a placard which reads 'Shame' outside of Vienna's parliament

Image: Joe Klamar/AFP

About 200 protesters demonstrated in front of the parliament building in Austria's capital Vienna on Tuesday evening.

They were rallying against an event called the Dinghofer Symposium that they say is antisemitic.

Parliamentary speaker Walter Rosenkranz, who hosted the event, had attracted massive criticism in the past weeks for going ahead with the symposium despite calls to cancel it.

Some protesters held up placards that read "No place for antisemitism" or "Shame."

"Dinghofer was an antisemite and a Nazi party member during World War II," said Lia Guttmann, co-president of the Austrian Union of Jewish Students group.

Guttmann said the protesters were holding a "counter-symposium" outside parliament against what she called "historical amnesia."

Protesters held a 'counter-symposium' outside of the parliament in Vienna

Image: Joe Klamar/AFP

What is the controversy about?

The Dinghofer Symposium is named after Franz Dinghofer, who was Austria's vice chancellor in the 1920s.

Dinghofer was a self-proclaimed "radical antisemite" and a pan-German nationalist who became a member of the Nazi party during World War II.

The far-right Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) representatives counter that they remember Dinghofer as a statesman of the period between World War I and World War II.

The event, which has been held in parliament in the past, drew criticism from Austria's Jewish community and major political parties, including the ruling three-party coalition.

Last week, more than a dozen historians said parliament was being made "the place of honorable remembrance for a declared anti-Semite."

Event hosted by far-right parliamentary speaker

Walter Rosenkranz is a senior member of Austria's right-wing populist FPÖ.

He was elected president of the National Council, Austria's lower house of parliament, last year after the FPÖ topped legislative elections.

He has also faced widespread criticism for his membership of Vienna's right-wing Libertas student fraternity, which is known for its strident pan-German nationalism.

The country's main Jewish organization has ruled out working with him.

Speaking to Austria's national broadcaster ORF on Tuesday, Rosenkranz defended holding the event.

He said that "despite all the dark sides" in a person's biography, it was also possible to "see the positive aspects."

The symposium was held just days after Austria remembered the pogroms of November 9-10, 1938.

That is when the Nazi regime conducted a wave of coordinated attacks against Jews in Germany, as well as in Austria, which had been annexed by Nazi Germany just months earlier. Many historians mark the November pogroms as the foreshadowing of the Holocaust.

The wave of attacks has historically been referred to as Kristallnacht, or the "Night of the Broken Glass," but this term has fallen out of favor in Germany, as it is widely seen as downplaying the scale of the violence.

Edited by: Saim Dušan Inayatullah

UN food agencies list 16 areas at risk of famine

Elizabeth Schumacher

DW with AFP, Reuters

11/11/2025 

Two UN organizations also said they needed to double their funding to prevent catastrophe. Many international aid groups have been suffering as a result of US funding cuts.

The effects of malnutrition can be seen among the most vulnerable in Yemen

 [FILE: December 2023]Image: Mohammed Hamoud/AA/picture alliance


Both the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Program (WFP) warned on Wednesday of 16 areas where famine was an imminent risk.

The two UN bodies also called for more funding as many international aid organizations struggle amidst the rollback of US support under President Donald Trump.

"We are on the brink of a completely preventable hunger catastrophe that threatens widespread starvation in multiple countries," WFP Executive Director Cindy McCain said, warning that failing to address this "will only drive further instability, migration, and conflict."

In the joint report, the groups said "populations face an imminent risk of catastrophic hunger" in "Haiti, Mali, Palestine, South Sudan, Sudanand Yemen."

At the same time, Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Myanmar, Nigeria, Somalia, Syria, Burkina Faso, Chad, Kenya, and Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh were listed as areas of "very high concern."

Aid cuts lead to school closures in Rohingya refugee cam 04:38

Drastic funding increase needed

The report also noted that funding for humanitarian aid was "dangerously short" of what was needed, saying the two bodies had only received $10.5 billion of the $29 billion necessary to keep operations fully functioning.

The FAO warned that failure to stay fully funded would threaten food supply and create "recurring crises." Money for seeds and livestock health services was desperately needed, the organization said, "before planting seasons begin or new shocks occur."

"Famine prevention is not just a moral duty, it is a smart investment in long-term peace and stability," said FAO chief Qu Dongyu. "Peace is a prerequisite for food security and the right to food is a basic human right."

Scientists have long warned that the poorest and most conflict-ridden areas of the world will be most impacted by climate change, and that food shortages there will have ripple effects on the rest of the world.

Women working 'for free': gender pay gap not narrowing fast enough, says study

As of Monday, 10 November, women in France are working for free through the end of the year, according to an annual report that uses the exact day and time that men start being paid more than women, based on salary statistics, which show the gender pay gap is narrowing slightly, but not quickly.


Issued on: 10/11/2025 - RFI

A nurse in a hospital in Marseille, France, in 2021. Women are over-represented in healthcare and education, sectors that Les Glorieuses say should be paid more in order to address France's broader gender pay gap. © Daniel Cole/AP

As of Monday at precisely 11:31 am, women in France began working “for free”, and will continue to do so until the end of the year, according to the feminist newsletter Les Glorieuses, which determines this date and time using data on pay disparities between men and women.
Women's pay

For the same working hours, women earn on average 14.2 percent less than men, according to the latest figures available from the Insee National statistics institute, from 2023 data.

The gender pay gap in France has narrowed since 2016, from 15.1 percent to 14.2 percent. Last year, the symbolic date was 8 November at 4:48pm, in 2023 it was 6 November, and in 2022 it was 4 November.

But Rebecca Amsellem, author and founder of the newsletter, says it is not enough.

“If we do nothing… at the current pace, pay equality will not be achieved until 2167. This means a wait of 142 more years before women and men earn the same average salary,” she wrote, adding that this was “unacceptable”.

“This is not an abstract symbol, it is a real injustice. We must put an end to it,” Yaël Braun-Pivet, President of the National Assembly, wrote on X about the date.
Part-time jobs

Women are “more often in part-time jobs and are overrepresented in essential sectors, like healthcare, but they are undervalued by our economic and patriarchal standards,” said Greens leader Marine Tondelier, the only woman heading a major political party.

Les Glorieuses advocates for salary increases in female-dominated sectors, like nursing, education, home care aides, and equal parental leave for both parents after a woman has a child.

“Rather than ask women to constantly adapt, our movement would like a transformation of the world of work, for it to take the reality of women’s lives into consideration,” wrote Amesellem, who has said she hopes that a European directive on pay transparency, which will come into force in France next year, will help women negotiate higher salaries.

(with newswires)

Trump threatens BBC with $1 billion defamation case over speech edit

US President Donald Trump said he had an "obligation" to sue the BBC for defamation in an interview released on Tuesday, after the broadcasting company aired a documentary splicing together two parts of a speech made by Trump. Here's a look at how legal action between the US President and the world's biggest broadcaster could play out.


Issued on: 12/11/2025 
By: FRANCE 24

Pedestrians are reflected as they walk outside BBC Broadcasting House in London on November 11, 2025. © Kirsty Wigglesworth, AP

US President Donald Trump has threatened to sue the BBC for at least $1 billion over its airing of what he says was a deceptively edited documentary, as the BBC apologised for giving the impression the president had urged "violent action" ahead of the 2021 assault on the US Capitol.

In the Fox News interview which aired on Tuesday, Trump said he had an "obligation" to sue the broadcaster, without confirming whether he had officially begun proceedings to file a defamation lawsuit.

A future case could hinge on whether anyone in Florida watched the documentary online and felt misled. If that hurdle is cleared, a US court would need to decide whether Britain's biggest broadcaster intentionally deceived viewers.

Here is a look at what Trump would need to prove and how the BBC could defend itself.

Why does Trump want to sue the BBC?

Trump and his lawyers have accused the BBC of defaming him by splicing together two parts of a January 6, 2021 speech to make it appear he directed his supporters to violently storm the US Capitol.

In a letter viewed by Reuters, Trump's legal team gave the BBC until Friday to retract the October 2024 "Panorama" documentary news programme episode where the excerpts appeared, or face a lawsuit seeking at least $1 billion.

Trump has denied inciting the riot.

Trump told Fox News host Laura Ingraham in an interview on Monday that he had an "obligation" to sue the BBC. "They defrauded the public and they've admitted it," he said.

BBC Chair Samir Shah has apologised for the editing of the footage and a BBC spokesperson said the broadcaster is reviewing the letter.

The revelation about the editing of Trump's speech and wider criticism of BBC News have plunged the broadcaster into crisis, resulting in the resignations of Director General Tim Davie and Chief Executive of News Deborah Turness on Sunday.

READ MOREBBC director resigns after row over Trump documentary edit
Can Trump sue the BBC in the US?

Trump's lawyers suggested in the letter that he would sue in Florida, where he has legal residency.

A threshold question would be whether the BBC has actively sought to establish a presence in Florida and whether people in the state watched the documentary and felt deceived by it, legal experts said.

These factors could be critical when a court considers whether it has jurisdiction over the case.

The documentary was not broadcast in the US but was available until recently on the BBC's online streaming platform.

The broadcaster has offices in Los Angeles and New York, and it has been sued before in Florida federal court. In at least one case, it did not challenge the Florida court's jurisdiction, court records show.

If a court concludes it does not have jurisdiction, the case could be quickly dismissed.
What would Trump need to prove?

Public figures in the US face steep hurdles in defamation cases.

In addition to showing a statement was false and defamatory, they must prove a defendant knew the statement was false or recklessly disregarded the truth.

During a process known as discovery, Trump's lawyers likely would ask the BBC if there are internal communications showing that red flags were ignored or that BBC journalists intended to mislead viewers, legal experts said.

They added Trump could rely on a leaked internal BBC memo, written by an ethics and standards adviser, which raised concerns about systemic bias at the broadcaster in favor of the political left. The memo's critique of the "Panorama" editing process could buttress Trump's argument that the BBC acted maliciously.
How could the BBC defend itself?

The First Amendment of the US Constitution guarantees the right to free speech and gives the press some of the world's strongest legal protections against defamation claims.

The BBC would have those protections in any US court. In Florida, the broadcaster could also rely on a state law that allows defendants to swiftly dismiss defamation lawsuits that have no merit or are brought to retaliate against legally protected speech.

The broadcaster could argue that the documentary was substantially true and that its editing decisions did not create a false impression, legal experts said. It could also claim the programme did not damage Trump's reputation.

Trump has said it caused him "overwhelming reputational and financial harm".
Why isn't Trump suing in the UK?

UK law requires defamation cases to be filed within a year of a statement's publication, which has already passed for the October 2024 documentary.

The upper limit for libel damages in the UK is about 350,000 pounds ($469,735.00), but in practice they rarely approach that amount. In the US, payouts have reached as much as $1.4 billion.
Could Trump really recover $1 billion?

The figure is a jumping-off point, and it is not uncommon for US plaintiffs to file eye-popping damages claims as a play for leverage or an opening bid for settlement talks, legal experts say.

Damages would ultimately be decided by a judge or jury.

If Trump sues for $1 billion, it would not be the first time he has asked for enormous damages from a media company.

Trump filed a $20 billion lawsuit against CBS in 2024 for what he said was deceptive editing of an interview with his presidential election rival Kamala Harris. That suit ultimately settled for $16 million.

Trump in July sued the Wall Street Journal for $10 billion over an article about his ties to deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The WSJ has denied wrongdoing and the case is ongoing.

(FRANCE 24 with Reuters and AFP)

POETRY IS TERRORISM

Algeria jails pro-democracy Hirak poet for five years on terrorism charges

Algeria on Tuesday jailed pro-democracy activist Mohamed Tadjadit for five years on terrorism charges, in what human right groups have called an "alarming signal' for human rights in the country. Known for his public poetry readings during Algeria's 2019 Hirak movement, Tadjadit has been imprisoned multiple times by the Algerian authorities.


Issued on: 12/11/2025 - 
By: FRANCE 24

Algerians demonstrate in the streets of Algiers in support for the Hirak pro-democracy movement on May 7, 2021. © Anis Belghoul, AP

Algerian activist Mohamed Tadjadit, dubbed "the poet of the Hirak" during Algeria's 2019 mass pro-democracy protests, was jailed for five years Tuesday on charges including "condoning terrorism", his lawyer said.

Tadjadit became prominent for his public recitations during protests by the Hirak movement, which erupted in February 2019 and helped force the resignation of longtime president Abdelaziz Bouteflika.

Tadjadit's lawyer, Fetta Sadat, said in a post on Facebook that her client was convicted of "condoning terrorism", "supporting terrorist organisations" and "spreading extremist ideas", among other charges.

The prosecution had sought a 10-year sentence.

In a joint statement on Monday, some 20 NGOs including Amnesty International and writers' rights group PEN America said the allegations against Tadjadit were "baseless" and called for his release.

"The persecution of Tadjadit is based on his poetry and peaceful activism, making his continued imprisonment a violation of his fundamental rights," the statement added.

"His prosecution sends an alarming signal to others who raise their voices for human rights and the rule of law in Algeria," it said.

"The authorities imprisoned Tadjadit at least six times between 2019 and 2025, for his artistic expression and political activism," it added.

Tadjadit's last release from prison came in November last year under a presidential pardon.

But in January, he was arrested again and sentenced to five years in a separate case before an appeal reduced that term to one year.

Upon his election in December 2019, President Abdelmadjid Tebboune oversaw a crackdown on the protests with ramped-up policing and the imprisonment of demonstrators.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

Google denies removing Maps border between Western Sahara and Morocco

Google on Tuesday denied removing the borderline between the Western Sahara and Morocco on its Maps application, saying that the line had never been visible for Moroccan users. The Western Sahara is a disputed, mineral-rich territory largely controlled by Morocco but claimed by the pro-independence Polisario Front.


Issued on: 12/11/2025 
By: FRANCE 24

A screenshot of Google Maps' depiction of the border between Morocco and Western Sahara, as seen in Paris on November 12, 2025. © Google Maps


The dotted lines illustrating the border between Western Sahara and Morocco, indicating the former's disputed territory status, have never been visible to people using Google Maps in the latter, the company told AFP on Tuesday.

After media reports last week highlighted the discrepancy, tying it to the UN Security Council endorsing the Moroccan autonomy plan for Western Sahara, the tech giant has released a statement saying the different border displays have always been the case.

"We have not made changes to Morocco or Western Sahara on Google Maps," a Google spokesperson said in a statement to AFP.

UN Security Council backs Moroccan plan for disputed Western Sahara

"These labels follow our longstanding policies for disputed regions. People using Maps outside of Morocco see Western Sahara and a dotted line to represent its disputed border; people using Maps in Morocco do not see Western Sahara."

Western Sahara is a vast mineral-rich former Spanish colony that is largely controlled by Morocco but has been claimed for decades by the pro-independence Polisario Front, which is supported by Algeria.

The United Nations Security Council had previously urged Morocco, the Polisario Front, Algeria and Mauritania to resume talks to reach a broad agreement.

But, at the initiative of US President Donald Trump's administration, the council's resolution supported a plan, initially presented by Rabat in 2007, in which Western Sahara would enjoy autonomy under Morocco's sole sovereignty.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)