Author: Raimond Broussard

London (07/11 – 71) For ten years now, the authorities of Tajikistan have been engaged in forced assimilation of the ethnic Pamiri people, giving away the heartlands to China for debts,” Orzu M. shared with RFI – Radio France Internationale is a French news and current affairs public radio station that broadcasts worldwide. RFI met with Orzu in Paris, sharing the fact that more and more Pamiris are leaving their native homes in Gorno-Badakhshan Mountainous Autonomous (GBAO) Region of Tajikistan; they are driven into exile by the persecution of the authorities, who are displacing indigenous peoples. RFI: How did it…

Niger’s military rulers say they have foiled an attempt by Mohamed Bazoum, the former president they ousted in a coup in July, to escape custody. “At around three in the morning, the ousted president Mohamed Bazoum and his family, his two cooks and two security elements, tried to escape from his place of detention,” the regime’s spokesperson, Amadou Abdramane, said on state television. The escape attempt failed and “the main actors and some of the accomplices” were arrested, he said in the broadcast on Thursday evening. An investigation has been launched. Abdramane said the escape plan had involved Bazoum getting…

Berlin (3/11 – 40) Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe will visit China in the upcoming week as the crisis-hit country makes progress on debt restructuring talks with its biggest lender. Wickremesinghe took office in July last year, after a popular uprising, brought on by an economic meltdown, had forced his predecessor out of power. His Oct. 15-19 visit to Beijing will be his first to China since then. Wickremesinghe, who is also finance minister, has been leading Sri Lanka’s push to manage its heavy debt and keep funds flowing from a $2.9 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme. He will…

Paris, Wellington, Cape Town (29/10 – 18) South Africa has produced another magnificent defensive performance, to win the 2023 World Rugby Cup final. The Springboks beat New Zealand 12-11 in a Saturday thriller at Stade de France, Saint-Denis, thus becoming the first nation to win four Rugby World Cup titles – after their previous triumphs in 1995, 2007, and 2019. Four Handre Pollard penalties gave the Springboks a 12-6 lead in the first half. By that time, New Zealand already lost captain Sam Cane, red-carded for a high tackle on Jesse Kriel in the 32nd minute. The All Blacks only…

Paris, Wellington, London (16/10 – 45) Two former champions are showing their strength, as New Zealand and South Africa are through to the 2023 Rugby World Cup semifinals, at the expense of the two best teams in the world. New Zealand and South Africa – the pair ruining Ireland and France’s dreams of becoming a new champion in this tournament. Ireland and France tried their best, but the pedigree of New Zealand and South Africa as former champions could not be denied. On Saturday at Stade de France, Saint-Denis, three-time champions New Zealand prolonged Ireland’s quarter-finals curse. Before this year’s…

Frankfurt, Brussels (6/10 – 27) While Tajik authorities have not been able to lay their hands on their activist opponents living in Europe, they are able to turn the screws on their families and relatives, back in the old country. The recent case of arrest of family members took place shortly after President Emomali Rahmon’s visit to Germany, to attend a summit of Central Asian leaders, at the end of last month. Throughout Rahmon’s visit, he was trailed by demonstrators holding up placards bearing pictures of political prisoners and calling him a dictator. When Rahmon headed to the Bundestag on…

Berlin (21/08 – 50) A small community of bird enthusiasts in Astana have been setting ecological trends, advocating for ethical observation practices and environmental responsibility, and fostering camaraderie through shared sightings and insights. Ruslan Urazaliev, researcher and photographer, Kulyanda Tulebaeva, birdwatcher and photographer, and Vera Voronova, the executive director of the Association for Biodiversity Conservation of Kazakhstan (ASBK), shared their experiences supporting the city’s avian residents. Astana’s rough climate does not deter avian species, making it an unexpected winter haven for colorful birds like bullfinches, goldfinches, and snow buntings. As winter wanes, migratory birds stop in urban parks to recharge…

Geneva, London (29/7 – 50) Mary Lawlor, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, condemned the arrest and imprisonment of journalists, bloggers and civil society activists in Tajikistan, and questioned the credibility of the evidence presented in court against them. Lawlor was on a two-week official visit to Tajikistan last December. The report prepared by her and members of the delegation on the results of this visit was published in May of this year, but only now became available to the public. The authorities of Tajikistan will have to prepare an official response to the document, which…

There are a couple of scenes in this French drama where you might almost think that the film-makers have deepfaked the young Jean-Paul Belmondo back on to the screen, and that AI replicas in film – one of the flashpoints of the Hollywood actors’ strike – has already come to pass. Not so fast. The actor we’re watching is his grandson, Victor Belmondo, and in closeup, at certain angles, the resemblance really is uncanny: that nose (though a little less lopsided) and the pillowy lips arranged to smouldering leading-man effect. Belmondo appears in a supporting role in a tasteful literary adaptation that…

Two American tourists have been found sleeping off a heavy night in the heights of Paris’s Eiffel Tower, after dodging security the night before, the monument’s operator said on Tuesday. Security guards roused the men “in the early morning” as they were making their rounds before the French landmark’s 9am opening time on Monday, the publicly owned Eiffel Tower operator, Sete, said. They “appear to have got stuck because of how drunk they were”, Paris prosecutors told AFP. The inebriated Americans had spent their illicit night under the stars in a spot normally closed to the public between the tower’s second and…