“It’s not pretty,” Ibrahim told AFP ahead of the release of the report.

“Africa made great progress in the early decades of this century, but in the last 10 years we see that there has been very slow progress … and in the last five years things have started to stagnate and even deteriorate in some circumstances.”

Ibrahim, 78, is a Sudanese-British billionaire who made a fortune in telecoms and ploughed it into monitoring and encouraging better governance across Africa.

His foundation’s index, published every two years, is considered the most comprehensive overview of the topic, crunching data for 322 variables including public services, justice, corruption and security.

The latest found some progress in overall governance in 33 countries, home to just over half of Africa’s 1.5 billion people, over the past 10 years.

But for the remaining 21 countries, “the situation is worse in 2023 than in 2014”, with many showing signs of sharp decline.

A steep improvement in Seychelles has seen it take over top spot in the foundation’s overall ranking from another Indian Ocean island nation, Mauritius.

Several areas have seen widespread improvements in Africa, including infrastructure, women’s equality, health and education, albeit from low bases.

But much of this is being undermined by falling scores for the rule of law, rights, political participation and, especially, security.

“The lack of safety affects everything — who will build businesses or schools in a conflict zone?” said Ibrahim.

‘Vicious circle’

Sudan, South Sudan and Ethiopia are among the countries to experience devastating conflicts in the past decade, while a spate of military coups across western and central Africa since 2021 have underlined the fragility of political progress.

Ibrahim says pandemic lockdowns and the global trend towards “strong-man politics” may have emboldened autocrats.

But his biggest concern is the “financial strait-jacket” in which African countries are stuck thanks to heavy debt burdens and the high premiums that those countries must pay to access cash from global lenders.

“It’s circular,” he said. “When you don’t have enough money to build infrastructure, to deal with health or education, you start to lose control and that affects security.

“We need to cut this vicious circle to enable people to invest in the future.”

Ibrahim knows first-hand how hard it is to invest in Africa — banks refused to lend to him when he was setting up his African telecoms firm in the late 1990s.

Things have hardly improved — Africa today receives just 3.3 percent of global foreign direct investment, according to another of his foundation’s reports.

Ibrahim points to the need for fundamental reform in global lending institutions, as well as better technical training for Africa’s vast youth population.

The report underlies the growing frustrations among people on the continent. Even where indicators are showing positive signs, public perceptions are gloomy.

The research team said this may point to continued gaps in data, with many of the worst-affected citizens not being captured in official statistics.

It could also reflect the phenomenon that people’s expectations and frustrations rise as public services improve.

For all the gloom, Ibrahim finds hope in Africa’s young generation.

“They are better informed, more entrepreneurial and they’ve had enough,” he said.

© Agence France-Presse

The eight-legged critters are not the only surprise in the low-budget film, however, which for once depicts France’s ghetto-like suburbs as more than just a den of drug dealers and terrorists. 

Instead the block is shown as a place of hard-scrabble solidarity whose problems stem from abandonment by police, media and society in general.  

“We want to challenge stereotypes,” said Olivier Saby of co-producers Impact Films. The company was set up in 2018 with a mission to bring more diversity to French cinemas.

“The goal is not to make sure there is a black, Arabic or white person in every scene,” he told AFP. “We just want films and TV to reflect real life. 

“If you walk into, for example, a lawyer’s office today, you will find a lot more diversity than when you see one on TV.”

‘Must be improved’

French cinema has made steady progress in some areas. 

French women won two of the last three Palmes d’Or, the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival. Three of the five nominees for best director at next month’s Cesars (France’s Oscars) are women. (The prize has only once gone to a woman, Tonie Marshall, 24 years ago.)

Race is trickier. 

Some black actors have become superstars in France, especially “Lupin” star Omar Sy, and comedian Jean-Pascal Zadi, whose sharp satires about racial politics, “Simply Black” and “Represent”, have earned awards and been big international hits on Netflix. 

But progress is hindered because it remains illegal to gather data on race in France on the grounds that it would perpetuate artificial divisions, said Wale Gbadamosi Oyekanmi, a PR consultant who invests in Impact Film. 

“France doesn’t really talk about race. You can’t monitor the depth of the challenge because you can’t measure it” with statistics, he told AFP.

“There are new voices that could be heard, that reflect the country as it is now. It’s something that can and must be improved.”

Analysts work around the issue by measuring how people are “perceived” rather than directly asking their race. 

A study of 115 French films released in 2019 by 50/50 Collectif, a campaign group, found 81 percent of lead characters were “perceived as white”. 

That is not a commercial decision, it said, since the figure dropped to 68 percent for the 15 most popular films of the year.

‘Perverting creativity’

But France’s cultural gatekeepers still bristle at the idea of mixing social issues with creativity, said Marie-Lou Dulac, founder of diversity consultancy DIRE et Dire. 

Many in France see encouraging diversity as a way of “perverting creativity,” she said. 

“Actually it’s a way to renew creativity, to encounter new stories and characters.

“We can’t keep making the same old caricature of a French film — a white professional couple in Paris who are cheating on each other,” she added with a laugh.

Impact Films supports films with LGBTQ, disabled or ethnic minority leads, said Saby. It finances documentaries about environmental and social issues, and hires people from under-represented groups to work behind the camera. 

It also works with scriptwriters to avoid cliches. “Why are minority actors always playing a drug dealer?” he added. “Does every action hero need to drive a 4×4?” 

As in other countries, pushing for change triggers a backlash.

Powerful right-wing businessmen are also moving into film productions, such as last year’s “Vaincre ou Mourir” (“Victory or Death”) about the peasant counter-revolution of the 1790s, a favourite topic of pro-Catholic, pro-monarchy ultra-conservatives. 

It was produced by the company behind the Puy du Fou theme park, owned by far-right former presidential candidate Philippe de Villiers.

The risk of a backlash is no reason to give up, said Saby, with “Vermin” up for two Cesar awards and well on its way to being the most successful French horror flick in nearly 25 years. 

“There was always this battle. It’s just that only one side was winning up to now,” he said.

“There’s plenty of room on screen for everyone.”

© Agence France-Presse

“Total has officially left the agreement for the development of phase 11 of South Pars (gas field),” he told parliament’s news agency ICANA, adding that it had been more than two months since the French firm announced it would leave.

Zanganeh also appeared before parliament to underline the dire state of Iran’s oil and gas facilities, which he said were “worn out” and in need of renovation that Iran could not afford.

The United States said in May that it was abandoning the 2015 nuclear deal and reimposing sanctions on Iran in two phases in August and November, with the second targeting the country’s vital oil and gas sector.

“Total has notified the Iranian authorities of its withdrawal from the contract following the 60-day deadline for obtaining a potential waiver from the US authorities,” the group told AFP.

“Despite the backing of the French and European authorities such a waiver could not have been obtained,” it said.

The other parties to the nuclear deal — Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia — have vowed to stay in the accord but their companies risk huge penalties if they keep doing business in Iran.

The French firm signed up in July 2017 for the $4.8-billion (€4.1-billion) project to develop the field off Iran’s southern coast, as the lead partner alongside the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) and Iran’s Petropars.

It was meant to bring state-of-the-art technology to create the pressure needed to tap the gas field, which Iran could then replicate for surrounding fields where pressure has been declining.

Total was due to make an initial $1-billion investment, but the company said in May that it had spent less than €40-million on the project to date, as uncertainty over US actions mounted.

The company would have been highly vulnerable to US penalties for remaining in Iran.

It has $10-billion of capital employed in its US assets, and US banks are involved in 90% of its financing operations, Total said in May.

Technology needed

Zanganeh said the process to find a replacement for Total was underway.

But it is unlikely that CNPC or Iran’s own firms can take over the project, said Homayoun Falakshahi, an energy analyst for Wood Mackenzie in London.

“The technology Total was hoping to implement would have been world-first, using electricity to compress the gas,” he told the media.

“The other complication is that it needs huge platforms. Iran can build 5,000- to 7,000-tonne platforms. This would have been 20,000 tonnes,” he added.

In its statement, Total said it had “not been informed of an official CNPC position, but as we have always said, CNPC, a Chinese state-owned company, has the right to resume our participation if it decides so”.

CNPC was suspended from the project once before, in 2011, for failing to make progress.

The urgent need for investment to upgrade Iran’s dilapidated energy infrastructure was a key motivator behind its decision to join the 2015 nuclear deal.

Zanganeh appeared in parliament on Monday to answer questions on safety concerns following a number of recent fires at refineries.

“A big part of the oil industry has been worn out and the necessary renovation has not taken place,” he told parliament, according to the official IRNA news agency.

He said there were 10 cases per day of tubes perforating in Iran’s southern facilities, and that some refineries were up to 80 years old, “whereas the useful life of an industrial unit is 30 years”.

“We have no resources for renovating them,” he added.

But some conservatives in Iran oppose foreign involvement in the strategic energy sector, and have frustrated plans to develop attractive investment contracts.

As a result, the Total deal was the only major investment project finalised after the nuclear deal came into force.

The only other deal was a smaller project with Russia’s Zarubezhneft, worth €600-million, to develop two oil fields in western Iran.

© Agence France-Presse

There was a heavy police presence in Tehran as small groups of protesters ran through the city centre shouting anti-regime slogans, local agencies reported.

Some arrests were made before calm returned to the capital, reports said.

State television said one policeman had been killed and three others wounded by fire from hunting rifles in the city of Najafabad in central Iran.

The latest demonstrations came despite President Hassan Rouhani’s vow that the nation would deal with “rioters and lawbreakers”.

Media cited Ali Shamkhani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, as blaming the violence on social media.

“Hashtags and messages about the situation in Iran come from the United States, Britain and Saudi Arabia,” he said.

“What is happening on social networks concerning the situation in the country is a proxy war against the Iranian people.”

US President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly criticised Tehran over four days of demonstrations, said it was “time for a change” and that Iran’s people were “hungry” for freedom.

Iran’s intelligence ministry released a statement saying “rioters and instigators” have been identified “and will be dealt with seriously soon”.

The Revolutionary Guards published photos of three wanted people and called on the public to report any “seditionist elements”.

The deadliest night yet was on Sunday, with state television reporting six people killed by gunfire in the western town of Tuyserkan, and a local lawmaker saying two people had been shot dead in the southwestern town of Izeh.

Two others, including a teenage boy, were run down and killed by a fire engine protesters stole in the western town of Dorud, the state broadcaster said.

The total death toll linked to the protests currently stands at 13.

Biggest test for regime

Rouhani tried to play down the unrest, which began in second city Mashhad last Thursday and quickly spread across the country to become the biggest test for the regime since mass protests in 2009.

“This is nothing,” Rouhani said in a statement on the presidency website.

“Our nation will deal with this minority who chant slogans against the law and people’s wishes, and insult the sanctities and values of the revolution.”

Pro-regime rallies were held across several towns and cities.

Reporting restrictions remained tight, but videos on social media showed seemingly widespread anti-government protests, with attacks on government buildings and a school for clergy in the northwestern town of Takestan on Sunday.

‘Scared of talking’

Tehran has seen relatively small protests, but many people sympathise with economic grievances driving the unrest.

“Life is really difficult. The high prices really put me under pressure. My husband is a government worker but his salary is no way enough for us to make ends meet,” said Farzaneh Mirzaie, 42, a mother of two.

“Mr Rouhani says it’s free for people to protest but we’re scared of speaking. Even now, I’m scared of talking to you,” added Sarita Mohammadi, a 35-year-old teacher.

The authorities have confirmed more than 400 arrests since the outbreak of the unrest, of whom around 100 have been freed.

“Those who have rightful demands must be guided in lawful ways and those who riot and commit sabotage and chaos and set fire to public property… must be confronted decisively,” judiciary chief Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani told the state broadcaster.

“The country must have discipline,” he added.

Trump, a fierce critic of Tehran, used one of his first tweets of 2018 to again lash out.

“The great Iranian people have been repressed for many years. They are hungry for food & for freedom. Along with human rights, the wealth of Iran is being looted. TIME FOR CHANGE!” he tweeted.

The European Union Monday pushed Iran to guarantee the right to protest and separately British foreign minister Boris Johnson said “the UK is watching events in Iran closely”.

“We believe that there should be meaningful debate about the legitimate and important issues the protesters are raising and we look to the Iranian authorities to permit this,” Johnson said in a statement.

Living costs, unemployment

After initial silence, state media have shown some footage of demonstrations, focusing on young men attacking banks and vehicles, an attack on a town hall in Tehran and images of a man burning the Iranian flag.

Rouhani came to power in 2013 promising to mend the economy and ease social tensions, but high living costs and a 12 percent unemployment rate have left many feeling that progress is too slow.

“We have no problem bigger than unemployment. Our economy needs an operation. We must all stand together,” Rouhani acknowledged on Monday.

In 2009, authorities ruthlessly put down protests which followed a disputed presidential election that gave hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a second term. At least 36 people were killed in 2009, according to an official toll, while the opposition says 72 died. – Agence France-Presse

At the Safaripark Beekse Bergen zoo in the Netherlands, staff had already put their emergency procedures in place – including ice cubes for baboons, cold showers for the elephants, and special meat- and fruit-flavoured ice cream for the ring-tailed lemurs.

Not to be outdone, especially on the subject of ice cream, Italy’s main zoo in Rome offered gelato to its orangutans with a choice of flavours including fresh fruit and vegetables, or dried figs topped with eggs and insects. 

Humans were having a tougher time, with around a million homes in western France left without power overnight Tuesday after the heatwave moved in from Spain, and another blackout striking Brittany Wednesday morning, cutting electricity to 100 000 houses.

The Wimbledon tennis tournament in London saw the hottest day of play ever at 35.7 degrees Celsius, more than a degree hotter than the record set in 1976.  

A ball boy collapsed and hot weather rules meant women players got a 10-minute break between the second and final sets, though there was criticism that men did not get the same break.

Defending champion Novak Djokovic remained unfazed: “It wasn’t as bad as I thought,” he said.

Elsewhere in the city, public fountains became impromptu beaches, with parents sunbathing on benches and children playing in the water in their swimming costumes behind King’s Cross station.

Meanwhile in Brussels, it was hard to tell whether European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker was sweating from the pressure of the Greek crisis or just the ambient temperature. 

He joked with photographers at a press conference: “Every time I scratch myself, wipe my brow, you take a photo. Now I know what to do to end up in tomorrow’s papers!”

UN warning
Another heatwave set to last at least nine days is expected to hit Spain on Friday and then spread to France, Italy, Germany and eastern Europe, the Spanish national weather office said. 

Temperatures will be especially high on Monday, reaching 44 degrees Celsius in some Spanish regions, due to the arrival of hot winds blowing from Africa.

The extreme heat carries serious dangers, particularly to the elderly, sick and very young. 

The last major hot spell in 2003 caused an estimated 70 000 deaths in Europe, and Portugal has already recorded around 100 deaths over the normal mortality rate since temperatures rose at the weekend, its health authority said.

The first death directly linked to the heat was reported in the British press after a father drowned while trying to save his young daughter cooling off in a river in the northern Cumbria region. 

The elderly, sick, and those on certain medications are vulnerable because their bodies’ heat regulation system can be impaired, leading to heatstroke. 

And young children “produce more metabolic heat, have a decreased ability to sweat and have core temperatures that rise faster during dehydration”, said Britain’s National Health Service in a report. 

The Muslim Council of Britain warned people fasting for Ramadan to take extra care, and said Islamic law allowed the sick and vulnerable to break the daytime fast during extreme conditions.

The UN called for heatwave warning systems that would highlight the health hazards and inform people what they should do to protect themselves.

France and Belgium are among the countries that introduced such a system after the deadly 2003 heatwave. 

But elsewhere, such systems are not common, Diarmid Campbell-Lendrum of WHO told AFP, voicing concern about places like Pakistan, where more than 1 200 people have died amid soaring temperatures in the south of the country.

That crisis came a month after neighbouring India suffered its own deadly heatwave which killed more than 2 000 people. – AFP

“Rarely have reporters been murdered with such a barbaric sense of propaganda, shocking the entire world,” said Reporters Without Borders in their annual report released on Tuesday.

There was a slight drop in the number of murdered journalists – down from 71 last year – thanks largely to fewer deaths in countries “at peace”. A total of 720 reporters have been killed since 2005.

But kidnappings soared to 119 – up 37% on last year – thanks to the tactics of separatists in eastern Ukraine and militants operating in the Middle East and North Africa.

Of those kidnapped, 33 were in Ukraine, 29 in Libya and 27 in Syria. Forty are still being held.

“Local journalists pay the highest price, representing 90% of those abducted,” the report emphasised.

“Of the 22 journalists currently being held by armed groups in Syria, 16 are Syrians. All of the eight journalists currently held hostage in Iraq are Iraqis.”

‘Insulting Islam’
Reporters Without Borders highlighted several cases of journalists punished by their governments, including that of Raef Badawi, a Saudi citizen-journalist who won the charity’s Press Freedom Prize this year and was sentenced in September to 10 years in prison and 1 000 lashes for “insulting Islam” with his views on the Liberal Saudi Network.

It also highlighted the case of Khadija Ismailova in Azerbaijan – “now Europe’s biggest prison for media personnel”. Her work on government corruption has made her a target of smear campaigns, blackmail and spurious legal charges.

“Now she is being held on the absurd charge of ‘pushing’ a former colleague to attempt suicide, a charge that carries a possible sentence of three to seven years in jail,” the report said.

Worldwide, a total of 178 professional journalists were in prison as of December 8, the same number as last year.

China is the world leader in imprisoning journalists, with 33 currently behind bars, followed closely by Eritrea (28) and Iran (19).

Targeted violence
Among the high-profile targets is 70-year-old Gao Yu, who won UNESCO’s World Press Freedom Prize in 1997. Having already spent seven years in prison in China, she is again on trial for “divulging state secrets” to a German broadcaster.

Conflicts also led to large numbers of journalists fleeing their homes. Forty-seven Libyan and 37 Syrian reporters fled their homeland in the past year. A crackdown on privately-owned Ethiopian media drove 31 journalists into exile.

Beatings and rough handling were most common in Ukraine, followed by Venezuela and Turkey – a symptom of the targeted violence used by police in attempting to suppress protests in those countries this year.

The report “highlights an evolution in the nature of violence against journalists and the way certain kinds, including carefully-staged threats and beheadings, are being used for very clear purposes,” it said.

“The murders are becoming more and more barbaric and the number of abductions is growing rapidly, with those carrying them out seeking to prevent independent news coverage and deter scrutiny by the outside world.” – Sapa-AFP