Pressure is mounting for Lang to resign as head of a French cultural institute over his ties to the convicted sex offender.

France’s foreign minister has said he summoned ex-Culture Minister Jack Lang to a meeting on Sunday, as the country’s financial crimes prosecutors reportedly opened a probe into Lang and his daughter Caroline after revelations in the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s files.

Calls mounted Friday for Lang to resign as head of a leading French cultural institute over his ties to the convicted United States paedophile.

Lang, 86, is the highest-profile French figure caught up in the latest US release of documents linked to the financier who killed himself in 2019 while in prison facing charges of sex trafficking underage girls.

French media reports said Lang, who heads the Arab World Institute (IMA) in Paris, repeatedly appealed to Epstein for funds or favours, while his daughter’s name appears in the company files of an offshore company co-owned with the disgraced US financier.

His daughter Caroline Lang, a film producer, resigned on Monday from her role as head of the Independent Production Union.

Lang, who spent nearly 20 years as culture minister and education minister in different governments, has denied having any knowledge of Epstein’s crimes despite his conviction in 2008 for soliciting a minor for prostitution.

Lang’s name appears more than 600 times in the Epstein files, the Reuters news agency reported.

A mere mention in the files does not imply wrongdoing.

Lang is an eminent figure in French politics and cultural life, who is known for, among other cultural projects, creating France’s annual Festival of Music.

On Wednesday, he refused to step down as president of the cultural hub focused on the Arabic-speaking world.

Pressure has increased, however, and the foreign ministry – which provides half of the institute’s budget – has ordered him to a meeting.

“He has been summoned by the ministry and will be received on Sunday,” Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot was quoted as saying by the AFP news agency on a visit to Erbil in Iraq.

Speaking later from Beirut, Barrot added: “The first elements emerging from these files are new and extremely serious” and would require in-depth examination.

But his priority, he said, was to ensure the proper running of the IMA.

The 12.3 million euros ($14.5m) the IMA receives annually from the foreign ministry accounts for half of the institute’s budget.

France’s financial crimes prosecutors told AFP on Friday they had started a preliminary investigation into Lang and his daughter.

The pair will be investigated for “laundering of aggravated tax-fraud proceeds” over their suspected financial ties with the late US financier, the office said.

“I fear nothing, and I am clean as a whistle,” Lang told French radio RTL on Wednesday.

Storms in European capitals

The release of the Epstein files has rippled across Europe.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer apologised to the victims of Jeffrey Epstein for appointing Peter Mandelson as the United Kingdom’s ambassador to the US despite the diplomat’s close ties to the late sex offender.

Mandelson is being investigated over documents suggesting he passed sensitive government information to Epstein a decade and a half ago.

Members of Norway’s elite, too, are under pressure. Public figures including Crown Princess Mette-Marit and former prime minister and foreign minister Thorbjoern Jagland are all under scrutiny. Norway’s economic crime police unit said on Thursday it was investigating Jagland on suspicion of aggravated corruption.

The crown princess said on Friday she “deeply regretted” her friendship with Epstein and the embarrassment it has caused the royal family.

Other Norwegians facing questions include former foreign minister Boerge Brende, now CEO of the World Economic Forum; Mona Juul, ambassador to Jordan and Iraq; and her husband Terje Roed-Larsen.

In Slovakia, Prime Minister Robert Fico’s national security adviser Miroslav Lajcak has resigned after emails were revealed in which he discussed young women with Epstein.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi slammed the double standard allowing Israel to expand its military while other countries in the region are demanded to reduce their defensive capabilities. Araghchi spoke at the Al Jazeera Forum in Doha, a three-day event focusing on geopolitical shifts in the Middle East.

President Donald Trump told reporters that the US had ‘very good’ talks with Iran in Oman on Friday, but maintained his threats that the US military was positioned in the region should Iran not make a deal over its nuclear programme.

Tokyo, Japan – In Tomoko Ida’s household, rice is on the menu less often than it used to be.

Ida, a 48-year-old graphic designer and mother of two who lives in Tokyo, finds it difficult to justify eating Japanese rice on a daily basis amid soaring prices for the food staple.

“I remember that a few years ago, 5kg (11lbs) of rice cost around 3,000 yen ($19), but now it costs about 4,000 to 5,000 yen ($25 to $32),” Ida told Al Jazeera.

“My family consumes about 10kg (22lbs) of rice every month, and now we have no choice but to eat pasta or noodles a few times a week to save rice,” she said.

Ida is among millions of Japanese voters for whom rising living costs are the top concern in Sunday’s general election, which pits Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s Liberal Democratic Party-led (LDP) coalition against the opposition Centrist Reform Alliance.

For average Japanese people, making ends meet has become more difficult over the past year amid the persistent failure of wages to keep pace with rising prices.

Inflation-adjusted wages fell 2.8 percent in November, the 11th straight month of decline in people’s pay cheques, according to Japanese government statistics.

While Japan’s overall rate of inflation hovers at about 2 to 3 percent, the price of food has been rising much faster.

Rice prices soared nearly 68 percent last year, the result of shortages caused by a poor harvest in 2023.

Prices of imported foods, such as coffee and chocolate, have also risen sharply due to the weak yen, which has sapped consumers’ purchasing power.

“I went to a department store to buy some British tea as a treat, but it was over one and a half times the price from a few years ago, so I decided not to buy it,” Nao Hanaoka, a 29-year-old IT consultant in Tokyo, told Al Jazeera.

“Last year, I had plans to travel overseas for a conference, but the weak yen made it impossible to pay the conference fees,” Hanaoka added.

In a survey carried out by public broadcaster NHK last month, 45 percent of respondents said that measures to reduce prices would be the most important factor in their vote.

“Prices are going up without tangible increases in income, so people feel that even basic necessities are getting harder to afford,” Koichi Nakano, an associate professor of political science at Sophia University in Tokyo, told Al Jazeera.

Along with rising prices, “higher taxes and social security contributions in an ageing society with more spending commitments” have put households under growing strain, Nakano said.

‘Focus on policies that improve our lives’

Prime Minister Takaichi, a staunch conservative who is seeking to shore up her mandate less than four months after becoming Japan’s first female leader, has put the cost of living at the forefront of her election campaign.

Takaichi, an advocate of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s policy of ultra-loose monetary policy and big spending to reverse Japan’s longstanding economic stagnation, has promised to suspend the country’s 8 percent tax on food and non-alcoholic beverages for two years if her coalition is returned to power.

The Japanese leader’s tax pledge follows the approval last year of Japan’s largest stimulus package since the COVID-19 pandemic, a 21.3 trillion yen ($136bn) injection into the economy heavily focused on cost-of-living relief measures, including energy bill subsidies, cash handouts and food vouchers.

Takaichi’s economic plans have raised concerns about the sustainability of Japan’s finances on her watch, particularly overseas, amid a rapidly ageing society and a debt-to-GDP ratio of 230 percent, the highest among advanced economies.

After Takaichi unveiled her plan to cut the consumption tax while announcing the dissolution of the lower house of parliament last month in preparation for elections, foreign investors rushed to sell off Japanese government bonds, sending yields to record highs.

Japanese voters, too, reacted to Takaichi’s plan to cut the consumption tax with scepticism amid questions about how the government would cover the estimated cost of some 10 trillion yen ($63.7bn).

In an opinion poll published by The Nikkei newspaper last month, more than half of respondents said they did not believe the consumption tax pause would effectively address rising prices.

In recent campaign appearances, Takaichi has notably avoided any mention of her pledge.

“Sanae Takaichi changes her stance so quickly that she’s untrustworthy,” said Hanaoka, the IT consultant, who plans to vote for the Centrist Reform Alliance.

“I still have time to doubt Takaichi’s politics and look into things, thinking, ‘Is this really true?’ But people who are truly struggling probably don’t have time to research amid their daily work,” she said.

“I want politicians to focus on policies that improve our lives 10 or 20 years down the road, not just immediate cash handouts,” she added.

Still, Takaichi’s coalition appears to be on course for a comfortable victory over the opposition alliance, a merger of former Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda’s Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and ex-transport minister Tetsuo Saito’s Komeito.

An opinion poll published by The Asahi newspaper on Monday suggested the LDP and its junior coalition partner, the Japan Innovation Party, are on track to win 300 seats in the 465-member House of Representatives.

With just days to go to the election, Ida, the mother of two, said she had not decided who to vote for, but she was weary of the choices on offer.

“Honestly, I am tired of seeing new political groups with the same faces, just changing their party names,” she said.

Reporting by John Power in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The Sudan Doctors Network calls the attack in North Kordofan a ‘blatant violation of international humanitarian law’.

Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have launched a series of drone attacks targeting humanitarian aid convoys and fuel trucks across North Kordofan, killing at least one person and wounding several others, officials and medical organisations said.

The North Kordofan state government condemned Friday’s strikes on a convoy linked to the World Food Programme (WFP), urging the international community and United Nations bodies to impose sanctions on the RSF paramilitary group’s leadership.

The attacks occurred along the key road connecting the state capital, el-Obeid, with Kosti in neighbouring White Nile state.

Fighting between the government-aligned Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the RSF has intensified across the Kordofan region since October 2025 after el-Fasher fell to the RSF, where the group committed atrocities – a “crime scene” according to the UN.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the first strike at dawn hit three trucks in Er-Rahad.

A second attack followed in the Allah Kareem area near Es Samih, damaging four vehicles, including trucks carrying UN relief supplies.

In Um Rawaba, three drones struck a transport truck and a fuel tanker, causing additional civilian casualties. The WFP has not yet issued an official statement.

The Sudan Doctors Network said the convoy was delivering assistance to displaced communities in el-Obeid when it came under attack, describing the incident as a “blatant violation of international humanitarian law” and a war crime.

The group called for an independent investigation and stronger international measures to protect humanitarian workers and infrastructure.

Washington also condemned the incident. “The United States condemns the recent drone attack on a World Food Program convoy in North Kordofan transporting food to famine-stricken people which killed one and wounded many others,” US Senior Advisor for Arab and African Affairs Massad Boulos wrote on X.

“Destroying food intended for people in need and killing humanitarian workers is sickening,” he wrote.

“The Trump Administration has zero tolerance for this destruction of life and of U.S.-funded assistance; we demand accountability and extend our condolences to all those affected by these inexcusable events and terrible war,” he added.

UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator Denise Brown said the trucks were travelling from Kosti to deliver life-saving food assistance to displaced families near el-Obeid when they were struck.

She noted that the attack followed another drone strike earlier in the week on a WFP-related facility in Yabus, Blue Nile state, which injured an employee.

The brutal conflict between the Sudanese army and the RSF, now approaching its third year, has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced nearly 11 million and pushed multiple regions into famine conditions.

UN estimates indicate that more than 21 million Sudanese face acute food insecurity, with two-thirds of the population requiring urgent humanitarian assistance. Tens of thousands have also fled to neighbouring Chad.