In 2025, we reported on war and displacement, culture and climate, power and pushback. Our journalists followed conflicts, questioned politics, unpacked new technologies and listened to people living through change. Some stories were hard reads. Others offered hope, humour or human grit. These are our top picks from the year – reporting that reflects what we try to do at RFI English: explain the world, and stay close to the people living through it. Thank you for staying with us along the journey.
Africa: power and protest
'We come here to die': African recruits sent to fight Russia's war in Ukraine
Following the trail from Africa to the Ukrainian frontlines, this investigation asks who profits, who pays the price, and how distant wars pull in people with few choices and even fewer protections.
Madagascar's Gen Z uprising, as told by three young protesters
Young activists trace the anger, frustration and hope driving a new generation of Madagascans into the streets – and challenging the political status quo.
How football mega tournaments became a lightning rod for Morocco protesters
From stadiums to the streets, football emerges as a proxy battleground for identity, power and politics, revealing how sport can amplify wider tensions.
Young voters in Côte d'Ivoire seeking jobs, change – but most of all peace
As Côte d’Ivoire went to the polls, young Ivorians told us about joblessness, political dead ends and memories of past violence – and why peace mattered most.
South Africa closes G20 year framed as ‘presidency for all of Africa’
As South Africa wrapped up its G20 presidency, this story follows Pretoria’s push to put African priorities on the global agenda – from debt relief to inequality – amid boycotts, diplomatic tensions and questions over how much influence the continent can really wield.
The karate grannies of Korogocho, fighting back at any age
In one of Nairobi’s toughest neighbourhoods, older women turn to karate not for sport, but for safety, confidence and control over their own space, finding strength – and joy – along the way.
Ukraine and Russia: war, identity and closed worlds
How the Russian invasion has sparked a renaissance of Ukrainian culture
This piece explores how war has accelerated cultural change. It shows how language, art and identity can shift fast when a country is fighting to exist on its own terms.
Returning to Ukraine: 'If everyone leaves, what will become of this country?'
For Ukrainians living abroad, the question of return is fraught. This story explores the pull of home, the fear of going back, and the emotional cost of waiting.
Europe: democracy, disinformation and shifting ground
Europe’s 'Truman Show' moment: is it time to walk off Trump’s set?
As politics blurs into performance, this analysis probes a growing sense of democratic unease and the feeling that institutions are no longer speaking to voters.
How deepfakes and cloned voices are distorting Europe's elections
With fake audio and video becoming harder to spot, voters face a new challenge – deciding what is real in an election landscape increasingly shaped by synthetic media.
From Washington to Warsaw: how MAGA influence is reshaping Europe’s far right
A tour of political ideas crossing borders, tracing how US-style rhetoric and tactics are being adapted by movements across Europe.
Secret oaths and blacked-out windows: what happens inside the papal conclave?
Behind closed doors, rituals, rules and secrecy shape one of the world’s most watched decisions, offering a rare glimpse into a process designed to resist scrutiny.
France: citizens, culture and disappearing worlds
Changing France's approach to volunteering, one hour at a time
Can civic engagement fit into busy modern lives? This piece looks at efforts to lower the threshold for volunteering and bring more people into public life.
How 184 random citizens helped shape France’s debate on assisted dying
By handing a deeply sensitive issue to ordinary citizens, France tested a different model of democracy – and learned something about public trust along the way.
Did French media silence enable Brigitte Macron fake news story to go viral?
When mainstream outlets hold back, false claims can fill the gap. This story examines how hesitation may have helped a conspiracy theory gain traction.
Crying the news with Ali Akbar, the last paperboy of Paris
As habits change and print fades, one man keeps calling out the headlines, holding on to a disappearing rhythm of city life.
France Antarctique: the lost French outpost on the coast of Brazil
Before France became a global colonial power, it stumbled. This story uncovers a failed colonial experiment in Brazil, and the traces it quietly left behind.
France’s Republican calendar and the doomed battle to revolutionise time
Revolutionary France didn’t just try to overthrow a regime – it sought to reinvent time itself. This story revisits the radical calendar experiment, and why it ultimately failed.
Environment and technology: new pressure, old knowledge
Niue, the tiny island selling the sea to save it from destruction
Niue, a small island nation in the South Pacific, is experimenting with a novel approach to conservation, selling sponsorships for pieces of ocean in order to fund long-term protection.
How Europe’s appetite for farmed fish is gutting Gambia’s coastline
What ends up on European plates is changing life on the West African coast, as industrial fishmeal plants drain local waters of fish.
Indigenous knowledge steers new protections for the high seas
Once sidelined in global policy, indigenous ocean knowledge is now reshaping how marine protection is designed and defended.
Is AI sexist? How artificial images are perpetuating gender bias in reality
The images produced by AI systems often reflect old stereotypes, raising uncomfortable questions about who designs these tools – and whose biases they carry.
How weird fossils created by human garbage may baffle future civilisations
What will today’s plastic bottles, smartphones and chicken bones leave behind for the distant future? Scientists say our rubbish may become “technofossils” – a distinctly human geological layer that could puzzle future explorers about the age of mass consumption and waste.
Culture and memory: bearing witness
How exiled photographer Ernest Cole captured apartheid’s human toll
Through stark, unflinching images, Cole documented the everyday violence of South African apartheid, producing work that remains as unsettling as it is necessary.
‘Collective heroism’: French film recounts evacuation amid Taliban takeover
Set against the evacuation from Afghanistan, the French film foregrounds solidarity, capturing how ordinary people respond when institutions falter and danger closes in.
