Author: France 24

The USGS has warned that the final death toll from the magnitude 7.7 quake in Myanmar could top 100,000 and economic losses may exceed the country’s GDP.  Since the 2021 coup, the nation of 51 million people has been facing an unprecedented “polycrisis” marked by economic collapse, civil war, climate hazards and deepening poverty.  Plus, France’s competition watchdog has imposed a 150 million euro fine on Apple over its App Tracking Transparency privacy feature. 

A top Hamas official on Monday called on “anyone who can bear arms” to rise up against US President Donald Trump’s plan to remove Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, a day after Israeli PM Binyamin Netanyahu said he would let the militant group’s leaders leave the war-ravaged enclave if they lay down their weapons.

Emmy-nominated actor and 1960s heartthrob Richard Chamberlain, who rocketed to fame in the TV medical drama “Dr. Kildare” and starred in the mini-series “Shogun” and “The Thorn Birds”, has died at the age of 90, publicist Harlan Boll said.

Fondly known as Big George, Foreman dropped out of school as a teenager and went on to become an Olympic boxing gold medalist and later heavyweight champion after defeating Joe Frazier. He lost the title to Muhammad Ali in boxing’s iconic 1974 “Rumble in the Jungle” in Kinshasa, DR Congo.

China’s BYD automaker surpassed US rival Tesla for the first time in 2024 to become the world’s leading manufacturer of electric cars, an achievement that exceeded even the expectations of the brand’s CEO Wang Chuanfu, who predicted it would outsell its fiercest competitor sometime this year. For Elon Musk, it’s a hard pill to swallow.

After nearly a month-long delay, the composition of Syria’s new government has finally been revealed and sworn in. This new government will replace the interim administration established following Bashar al-Assad’s removal from power, marking the first official government of the country’s five-year transitional period. The 23-member cabinet is religiously and ethnically diverse, though it is largely dominated by close allies of interim leader Ahmad al-Sharaa. This Sunday also marks Syria’s first Eid al-Fitr holiday since the end of over half a century of Assad family rule. Vedika Ba-hel reports on how the nation plans to celebrate.

Actor Gérard Depardieu arrived in a Paris court on Monday for his trial over alleged sexual assaults on a film set, a case placing one of France’s best-known movie stars at the heart of the country’s broader reckoning over sexual violence.

France thrashed Scotland 38-15 in their women’s Six Nations match on Saturday, with fullback Morgane Bourgeois alone scoring 20 points.

The fight against malnutrition, the world’s leading cause of infant mortality, was chronically underfunded even before the US halted its funding for humanitarian aid and development. As Paris hosts the Nutrition for Growth summit this week, we look at how healthy eating isn’t just a developmental issue but also an economic one. Every dollar invested in nutrition generates a return of 23 dollars, while malnutrition can cost up to tens of billions of dollars to the economy. So why is hunger and malnutrition still an issue today and how do we generate the political will to fix this problem? Charles…

The Israeli army on Saturday admitted its troops had opened fire on “suspicious vehicles” in the Gaza Strip that turned out to be “ambulances and fire trucks” during an offensive launched earlier this month. Hamas has condemned the attack and accused Israel of committing a war crime.