Author: France 24

Zinédine Zidane oversaw a 1-0 victory in Turkey in his first match in charge of Les Bleus, with Kylian Mbappé scoring the only goal of the game in the second half. The France captain went off injured soon after and will miss the team’s next three Nations League fixtures. 

Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump have been holding talks in the Oval Office at the White House. Trump gave the visiting leader of Communist China a personal tour of several of his favourite White House features. He took him aboard the Marine One helicopter, presented the new granite landing pad he had built for it, and pointed out the massive adjacent construction site where a ballroom will eventually stand. 

This week Paris des Arts decamps to Geneva, the cosmopolitan Swiss city nestled between the lake and the Jura mountains. Valérie Fayolle is there to meet two artists who have made it their home. Young chef Danny Khezzar heads up the team at the Michelin-starred Bayview restaurant. A “Top Chef” finalist in 2014, Khezzar has two passions: music and cooking.    

Oliver McTernan, Director and co-founder of Foward Thinking in London, is our guest.

FIFA president Gianni Infantino came under increased pressure Friday as Europe’s four main football leagues called for sweeping reforms of the world football governing body. The English Premier League, Spain’s La Liga, Italy’s Serie A and Germany’s Bundesliga demanded that measures are adopted to ensure “disciplinary matters remain demonstrably insulated from political interference”.

As trade ties with the US continue to fray, Canada is seeking a new role and new partners in the increasingly fragmented global economy. Prime Minister Mark Carney has been courting more foreign investment as well as closer ties with the European Union and Asian economies. 

As the United States marks its 250th anniversary, its founding promises, identity and place in the world are being fiercely debated. As the Festival America in Vincennes gets underway, we’re putting that question to two acclaimed novelists: New Yorker Taffy Brodesser-Akner, author of “Long Island Compromise”, and Lebanese-American writer Rabih Alameddine, whose novel “The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother)” won the 2025 National Book Award for Fiction.

In an interview with FRANCE 24 on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, Anwar Gargash, senior diplomatic adviser to the UAE president, said Iran “has dragged us into this conflict”, after the UAE was “the target of 3,300 missiles and drones” fired by Iran. After US President Donald Trump said he could either negotiate with or “obliterate” Iran, Gargash warned that the “current situation of no war, no peace is not sustainable”.

Inspired by the women’s team’s continental title win in August, which they came to Garoua to showcase, Cameroon’s Indomitable Lions began their 2027 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying campaign in style with a 3-1 victory over the Comoros. This was a promising beginning for Cameroon, who were not involved in last summer’s World Cup.

Flights between Iran and the United Arab Emirates have been suspended, following tighter US sanctions on Iran’s aviation industry. The move effectively cuts Tehran off from Dubai, one of the region’s most important commercial hubs. There are also huge backups near Iran’s border with Turkey, as overland shipping routes struggle to fill the gaps. Also in this edition – Donald Trump and Xi Jinping hail strong ties between the US and China as they discuss AI, trade, and energy.